April 2008 Gardening Checklist

• Divide or transplant hardy perennials, such as chrysanthemums, asters and hostas. Apply Preen Weed Preventer with Brilliant Blooms Fertilizer, which effectively combines the two steps of weed prevention and fertilizing into one easy step. Preen Weed Preventer with Brilliant Blooms Fertilizer prevents summer and winter annual weeds from growing in flower and vegetable beds, and around trees and shrubs for up to three months.
  

'Bright Lights' Swiss chard
Photo courtesy All-America Selections
• Allow foliage of spring-flowering bulbs to ripen and yellow or brown before cutting back. Leaves make the food reserves
  stored in the bulbs that bring next year’s flowers. Divide or transplant spring-flowering bulbs after they’ve finished blooming. Mark empty spaces in the landscape to show where to plant spring-flowering bulbs next fall.
  
• Remove any protective winter covering you provided for roses, such as mulch, compost or specialized rose cones. Keep the covering nearby in case of late freezes. Prune and fertilize as needed.
  
• Sow seeds for cool-season crops, including peas, lettuce, spinach, carrots, beets, turnips, parsnips and Swiss chard, directly in the garden as soon as the soil can be worked. Soil should crumble instead of forming a ball when squeezed.
  
• Plant seedlings of cool-season crops, such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi and onions.
  

Start tender bulbs, like tuberous
begonias, indoors
Photo courtesy Netherlands Flower
Bulb Information Center
• To give a head start to summer flowering bulbs, such as tuberous begonias, caladiums, cannas and dahlias, pot them up in containers indoors and water. Place in a cool, bright area indoors, but out of direct sun. Water when the soil feels dry. Apply a water-soluble fertilizer according to label directions. Move the bulbs outside to their summer locations after all danger of frost has past.