Gardening Calendar for April

• Winter mulches should be removed from roses. Complete pruning promptly. Remove only dead wood from climbers at this time. Cultivate lightly, working in some compost or other organic matter.
• Shrubs and trees best 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.
• Remove tree wraps from fruit trees now.
• Flower stalks should be removed from rhubarb plants, if they develop.
• Soaker hoses and drip irrigation systems help you save water and money.
• 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.
• 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.
• During weeks 2-4, try an early sowing of warm-season crops such as green beans, summer squash, sweet corn, New Zealand spinach and cucumbers.
• During weeks 3-4:
  Begin planting lima beans, cucumbers, melons, okra and watermelons.
  Begin setting out transplants of tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and sweet potatoes.
  Easter lilies past blooming can be planted outdoors. Set the bulbs 2 to 3 inches deeper than they grew in the pot. Mulch well if frost occurs.
  Honeybees are swarming. Notify a local beekeeper to find a new home for these beneficial insects.
  Hummingbirds return from their winter home in Central America.