In 1968 Spencer Silver accidently invented what I would consider the greatest invention of the 20th century. Any ideas? Anyone? Post-it Notes! They are the single biggest factor behind the efficiency by which I run my company. Without to-do lists, forms, and Post-it Notes, I think I would just cease to function.
As I write this column, I am preparing a Power Point presentation for the very active Sunflower Garden Club of Sun City. The topic of the presentation is what gardening activities should be done when. It is tough to tell someone what to do. Certainly no one wants to go to a presentation and be given a laundry list of chores that they must accomplish in their yard ASAP. At the risk of offending our readership, I will attempt some gentle recommendations of things that you may want to consider doing in your yard and landscape this month.
1. Evaluate and prune, if needed, summer blooming and evergreen shrubs. If possible, don’t prune spring blooming shrubs just yet.
2. Pull those weeds! They will only get larger as time goes on. Consider applying Preen. It is a pre-emergent herbicide that will help suppress any future weed growth.
3. Evaluate how much mulch is currently in your landscaping beds and, if needed, add more. As a general rule of thumb, you should have about 2” of mulch around shrubs and trees and 1” around perennial flowers. Mulch helps to suppress weeds and retain moisture around your plants.
4. Spade the edges of your planting beds. This helps retain a crisp, clean edge between your lawn and your planting beds.
5. Consider dividing some of your perennial plants. Hostas, daylilies, and grasses are the most common plants that I see that need dividing. Daylilies will flower less over time if they are not divided, and grasses will start to die out in the center if they get too big. Hostas, well those are indestructible, but you could divide them and hand them out to your neighbors!
6. If you have plants that are particularly susceptible to insect damage (think Japanese Beetles), you may want to apply a systemic insecticide. Usually systemic insecticides will protect your trees and shrubs for up to one year, but please read the label.
7. Many lawns in your community have quite a bit of thatch. You may want to consider de-thatching. Now would also be a good time to seed any bare spots.
8. Voles and rabbits were quite active this winter. Commercial and homemade animal repellent products help protect your plants and lawn.
9. Water your plants if they are dry. Normally this wouldn’t be on an April to-do list, but it has been an unusual spring.
10. Have an area you would like to improve? April is a great time to plant trees and shrubs.
After attending a garden center symposium, this winter I came home in a very foul mood. It was depressing to be lectured for 12 hours on why what I was doing was incorrect and why I needed to be doing just about everything differently. My normally ever-supportive husband will be throwing away the invitation to that symposium next year. Hopefully you won’t throw away this column, but consider it your ‘to-do list.’
Kathleen Carr is the president of The Growing Scene, Inc, a landscape and garden center company. She can be reached through email at tgsinc12@msn.com.
