April in the Texas Garden
To my fellow Texas Gardeners . . .
Gardening before the Texas heat hits is ON! It’s GO TIME and we have a lot we can do in the garden this month. Do you need to do all of them? No!
Do what you can and what you enjoy, gardening doesn’t need to be another chore.
If you aren’t enjoying it, cut back.
Now is the time to get herbs, perennials and trees in the ground. Our last average frost date is April 16th. Try to hold off on heat loving fruits and vegetables until later in the month.
As always, don’t plant everything!
Plant what your family loves & you enjoy growing.
April Planting Guide:
Transplants: Leeks, Tomatoes, Peppers, Fennel, Artichokes, Asparagus, Lavender, Rosemary, Eggplant. I purchases transplants for almost all of my herbs. It’s worth the investment to me since many of them are hard to grow from seed and come back each year.
Direct Sow (plant seeds): Chamomile, Bee Balm, Lemon Balm, Calendula, Chives, Marigold, Sunflower, Swiss Chard, Beans, Cosmos, Squash, Zinnias, Loofah, Nasturtiums.
Plant AFTER the last frost date: Corn, Cosmos, Cucumbers, Ginger, Turmeric, Squash and Succulents.
Fruit: Apples, peaches, pecans, pears, pomegranates, persimmons, figs, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries. Next month will be perfect for warm weather fruit like melons, lemons and limes.
Plant Trees, Native Shrubs & Evergreen Ground Cover and Roses.
Add color to your pots & garden: pansies, violas, snapdragons, calendula, stock, geraniums and ferns.
It’s time to begin planting all of your zinnias and marigolds.
April Gardening Tasks:
Order all summer seeds. My favorite place for seeds is BAKER CREEK SEEDS. Again, I only purchase what we love! If it’s not a favorite, I buy it from the grocery store.
Prune back any perennial herbs in your garden.
Divide and move perennials.
Prep your garden beds by adding compost and mulch.
Check your sprinklers and/or drip irrigation for any needed repairs.
Mow any unwanted wildflowers and/or weeds before they flower.
Weed daily. What is a weed? Anything that’s not where you want it :)
Deal with Pests:
Watch for aphids and spider mites, spray them off with a hard blast of water. Be sure to get the undersides of the leaves.
Ladybugs and green lacewings will be chomping down those aphids, so watch for them and their larvae and do a happy dance when you see them coming to your rescue!
Remove pests damaged leaves to the trash (not the compost pile).
Watch for tomato hornworms on tomatoes. Pull them off and feed them to chickens or release them elsewhere.
To fend off squash vine borers, keep row cover on and hand pollinate. Or take your chances with natural bee pollinators! Some other ways to deal with them organically, READ MORE
Walk the garden in early morning to pick off stink bugs from tomatoes. Check under the leaves for eggs.
Deal with grasshoppers while young. Here’s a good post with some all-natural ways to deal with them, READ HERE
If you’d like to see a planting list for your specific area, the Almanac gives a comprehensive guide.
Find it HERE.
