April 2024
Hayrack planted with Ranunculus, Saxifrage, Pansies, and English Daisies
April weather in Cincinnati can be very fickle, with the possibility for warm sunny days, but also nighttime lows below freezing. The good news is the average high temperature increases about 10 degrees from 61 on April 1st to 70 on April 30th. The amount of daylight also increases by more than an hour, from 12 hours and 41 minutes at the beginning of the month to 13 hours and 51 minutes by its close. This increase in light and warmth results in the greening of our garden spaces, as perennials begin noticeable growth and flowering trees begin to add color overhead. I look forward to April for the bright color and joy tulips bring to our world.
The garden is a busy place for gardeners in April, with weeding, sowing, dividing, mulching, and planting. Get out and enjoy!
April Garden Tasks
Keep sowing seeds indoors during the first couple of weeks of the month. This will give you a month’s headstart on flowers when it is time to plant annuals around Mother’s Day. You’ll have that much longer to enjoy color in your garden this summer. If you stored your Caladium and Canna Lily bulbs last fall, now is the time to pot them up, so they also have a headstart before mid-May planting.
Now is the time to refresh the mulch around your perennials as they begin to emerge. This will protect their roots later on from the hot summer sun and help retain soil moisture during periods of drought.
April is also the best time to divide your perennials before they develop too much foliage. Dig the entire clump and use a shovel to divide. I know it sounds ruthless, but the plants will be fine. Place each division into a new hole and water well (even if the forecast calls for rain) before you backfill with soil and mulch.
Similarly, now is a good time to plant new perennials before the weather gets too warm, which stresses newly installed plants.
Stay of top of weed removal. Many of the early spring weeds will set seed this month, giving you an even bigger crop to deal with next year.
Don’t be too quick to get rid of bugs you find in the garden. Birds are nesting now and require a lot of protein for their young. 96% of terrestrial birds feed insects to their babies, which typically must eat every 15-20 minutes. A pair of Chickadees, for example, must catch about 7,500 caterpillars to raise their clutch of nestlings!!
April Tip
I used to grocery shop without a list, wandering the aisles, buying things I thought we might want to eat. Every week I threw out a lot of food and ordered carry-out. I’ve now learned to create a menu for the week and purchase only what I need, cutting down waste and saving money. It’s the same for trips to the plant nurseries. If you’ll be flower shopping soon for your containers and don’t want to waste your money, I recommend the following steps, to ensure you buy the right number of plants and create a look you’ll enjoy all season.
Measure the diameter of your round containers or length and width of your windowboxes. The examples I show below are a 68” x 8” windowbox and a 14” round urn.
Cut out a paper template the size of your containers. In the examples below, I cut out my templates from an inexpensive plastic table cloth, so I could re-use them.
Most of the nursery plants you will buy are available in either 4”, 6” or 8” plastic pots. Cut out multiple templates for each size.
Place the smaller templates onto the container template (pics below). I typically use the '“Thriller, Filler, Spiller” recipe for each design. I place the thriller, a taller dramatic plant (usually in an 8” pot) in the middle, surrounded by a couple of fillers (usually in 4” or 6” pots)which spread around the base of the thriller, and a couple of spillers (also typically in 4” or 6” pots), which cascade over the sides of the container. I also recommend taking the container template to the nursery, so you can place plants on the template
In addition to getting the number of plants right, it’s important to read the plant tags and buy plants which require the same light and moisture conditions. For example, don’t plant a shade loving hosta in a pot with a sun loving daisy, or a succulent which likes things dry with an impatien that needs lots of water. To learn more about reading plant tags, please see the March tips.
The first pic below shows a 68” x 8” windowbox template with multiple 4” plant templates, along with a photo of the actual planting in mid-Summer. The second set of pics show a 14” urn template with four 4” plant templates, along with the container on the day I planted. You will see in the container template pics that I left several inches of room around each plant to allow space for them to grow.
A 68” x 8” windowbox template with three 8” plant templates and 12 4” plant templates
