April in Southern California is perfect for playing in your garden. The days are longer and warmer and there’s always something to do. Plant every chance you get. Local garden centers are loaded with all that new and interesting this month. Drop by discover something exciting.
Work with what you’ve got. If you would like to grow herbs and vegetables but don’t have a large space consider establishing a container garden. A variety of inexpensive pots in various shapes and sizes can be used to cultivate a ‘patio garden’. In pots or in the ground, group tomatoes, onions, peppers and cilantro together and you have a ‘salsa garden’. Be creative in the space you’re allowed.
Color: Asters, Coleus and Zinnias are showing up in the garden centers now. April is one of the months with the largest selection of flowering plants available. Be creative and make your own hanging baskets and potted patio plants using some of your favorites. Continue to dead head all flowering plants for optimum flower production.
Fruits & Vegetables: Plant Citrus, Bananas, Avocados, Guava and other frost sensitive fruit trees this month. Fertilize existing fruit trees to help promote good fruit production. Additionally, thin excess fruit from young trees before the fruit reaches the size of an almond. This will prevent undue stress being put on the tree. Peaches should be thinned to every 5″ on alternate sides of the branch with plums, nectarines and apricots spaced at every 3″. Time to put in vegetables such as beans, corn, peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes if you haven’t done so. Also plant melons, squash and gourds.
Perennials: It’s not too late to divide perennials such as Agapanthus, Moraea and Hemerocallis. Make sure they’re planted immediately after division. Divide and transplant grasses too. For bushier flowering shrubs, pinch new growth to encourage fullness at the base of the plant.
Pests: Treat aphids, spider mites and white fly with insecticidal soap or a brisk spray of water.
Roses & Flowers: Roses should be at their peak right now. Continue to dead head and feed with a high nitrogen fertilizer.
Also: Once the weather has warmed and the plants in your garden are beginning to show signs of life, prune off any cold damage that may have been inflicted during the winter. Cut just below where the dead branches begin. If you’re not sure about what is damaged or not, wait until next month and reassess the damage.
Stake taller growing plants now while they’re smaller and easier to manage.
Sheer formal hedges and prune evergreens in preparation of their spring growth spurts.
Prune and fertilize groundcovers to remove dead patches and encourage new growth.
