April Gardening Calendar

Ornamentals

• When buying bedding plants, choose compact, bushy plants that have not begun to flower.
• Study your landscape for gaps that could be nicely filled with bulbs. Mark these spots carefully and make a note to order bulbs next August.
• Enjoy, but do not disturb the many wildflowers blooming in woodlands throughout Missouri.
• Weeks 1-3: When crabapples are in bloom, hardy annuals may be transplanted outdoors.
• Weeks 1-2: Examine shrubs for winter injury. Prune all dead and weakened wood.
• Week 1: Shrubs and trees best planted or transplanted in spring, rather than fall include butterfly bush, dogwood, Rose of Sharon, Black gum (Nyssa), vitex, red bud, magnolia, tulip poplar, birch, ginkgo, hawthorn and most oaks.

Vegetables

• Weeks 1-3: Finish transplanting broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower plants into the garden. High phosphorous fertilizers help get transplants off to a quick start.
• Weeks 1-2: Asparagus and rhubarb harvests begin.
• Weeks 1-2: Finish sowing seeds of all cool-season vegetables not yet planted.
• Weeks 1-2: Start cucumber, cantaloupe, summer squash, and watermelon seeds indoors in peat pots.
• Weeks 3-4: Begin setting out transplants of tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and sweet potatoes.

Fruits

• Blemish-free fruits unmarred by insect or disease injury can rarely be produced without relying on regular applications of insecticides and fungicides For special information, consult University Extension Guide Sheet #G6010, Home Fruit Spray Schedule.
• Weeks 1-2: A white interior latex paint may be brushed on the trunks of newly planted fruit trees to prevent sunburn. This will gradually weather off in time.
• Weeks 1-2: Wooden clothespins make useful spreaders for training young fruits limbs. Place pins between the trunk and branch to force limbs outward at a 60 degree angle from the trunk.

Lawns

• Start mowing cool season grasses at recommended heights. For complete details, refer to University Extension Guide #6705, Cool Season Grasses.
• Weeks 1-2: Topdress low spots and finish over seeding thin or bare patches.
• Weeks 1-2: Aerate turf if thatch is heavy or if soil is compacted.
• Weeks 1-2: Apply crabgrass preventers before April 15. Do not apply to areas that will be seeded.

Miscellaneous

• Week 1: Mount a rain gauge on a post near the garden to keep track of precipitation so you can tell when to water. Most gardens need about 1 inch of rain per week between April and September.
• Weeks 1-2: Termites begin swarming. Termites can be distinguished from ants by their thick waists and straight antennae. Ants have slender waists and elbowed antennae.
• Weeks 2-4: Mole young are born in chambers deep underground.
• Weeks 3-4: Honeybees are swarming. Notify a local beekeeper to find a new home for these beneficial insects.