TOP 10 TASKS FOR YOUR APRIL TO-DO LIST

With Spring in the air and the new season just starting April is always a busy month in the garden so you may not welcome an extra list of chores in addition to those you have already planned. If so then just treat this as an aide memoire or handy reminder of any that may have slipped your memory. In fact this is far more than a list of ten tasks, but is a comprehensive survey of all areas of the garden with links to more detailed articles on each topic. The information comes from an article by Margaret Roach which I found on her A Way to Garden website.

I FEEL FRANTIC EVERY APRIL, but know that being strategic is a smarter attitude in the face of the month?s heroic to-do?s. I try to stick to these 10 steps (at least on days that it isn?t snowing?something it hardly did all ?winter,? waiting till ?spring,? apparently, to begin).

  1. Start cleanup near the house. Tidying beds along the most-traveled front walkway early reminds me that I can do this, a little at a time. Walking past a mess every time I go out: not so inspiring. Work out from homebase.
  2. First things first. In the edible garden, why prep the tomato row when you haven?t even planted the peas or spinach? ?Spot clean? key areas, so earliest crops can get sown, then double back later if other ?must? extra-early chores are still undone.
  3. Similarly: Gently remove matted leaves to uncover early spring ornamentals first, such as spring bulbs and ephemerals, even if you can?t stop to clean the whole bed. Start cutbacks by trimming battered leaves from semi-evergreen perennials, such as hellebores and epimedium and gingers?and with ornamental grasses.

Go to the next page for the other tasks
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