Postponement

April 2020

PICKAWAY TO GARDEN

Postponement

By Paul J. Hang

Graduations, proms, sports events (Could we have April Madness.?  Please?) are just a few of the things we have had, and probably will have, to postpone. Could we postpone people saying, “I have never seen anything like this in my life”? Duh! Of course we haven’t. No one alive has ever seen anything like this pandemic and its consequences.

The Vernal Equinox has come and gone. No postponement there. Spring bulbs flowering, spicebush blooming, grass greening, dandelions blooming and going to seed along with more annoying weeds like bitter cress, crab grass germinating, I haven’t heard the President or the Governor postponing any of those events.

Last month I urged people to consider having a garden. Vegetables and fruits for food, flowers and herbs for beauty for the eyes and other senses await you. If you are still considering doing it, don’t postpone it. Now is the time. You don’t have to own a pair of Nikes to “Just Do It.”

This a good month to start plants indoors. Annuals, perennials, vegetables, most seeds can be started now. Some people have luck starting seeds in a sunny window but I always needed to supplant sunlight and use artificial light. Last average frost  date is April 23 so there is just enough time to get the seedlings off to a good start before acclimating them and then transplanting them out into the garden.  A good site is, https://u.osu.edu./fairfieldng, check gardening 101. Of course you can also buy plants from a nursery if you can’t start them from sedd. Nursery are rightfully considered essential this time of year..

Other sites to search for gardening information for Ohio and surrounding states are: www.ohioline.edu.osu, (Michigan) www.migarden.msu.edu, (Kentucky) www.uky.edu/hort, (Pennsylvania) www.extension.psu.edu, (Indiana) www.extension.purdue.edu, (West Virginia) www.ext.wvu.edu. If you use “You Tube” make sure the video you’re watching is coming from a university site ending in edu.

April is Ohio Native Plant Month. For more information go to ohionativeplantmonth.org. April brings Arbor Day, April 24^th, when we are urged to plant a tree. April 22^nd is Earth Day when we are urged to save the Earth. These events can be postponed, if not the goals. Dr. Bob Liggett, champion giant pumpkin grower, perennial winner of the Pumpkin Show contest, says they start their pumpkins indoors on or about April 20^th depending on the weather forecast. If colder, they start later. If warmer they start earlier. They germinate the seeds at 85 to 90 degrees. It takes 3 to 4 days and then in a week, depending on the weather, they acclimate the plants to go outdoors.

When speaking of postponement, I like to quote Ralph Stanley. “Ooh death, Whooooah death, Won’t you spare me over ‘til another year?” Stay safe and don’t postpone the directions for avoiding the covis-19 virus.

Things to do in the garden:

Using a notebook wander your grounds and note things you need to do and ideas you want to implement. Divide perennials, move a shrub, start a new bed, renew the lawn, order mulch or topsoil, finish pruning fruit trees, raspberries, roses and grapes. There are lots of things to do.

Tomato and pepper seeds should be started indoors. The seedlings should be moved from the cells after 4 weeks into larger pots. Move them into the garden only after hardening them off and the danger of frost is past. As usual make sure you water-in the transplants. When you water, water deeply (top six inches wet) and water the base of the plant not the foliage. Water when the plants need it, not every day. Most plants require 1 to 1 and a half inches of water per week.

Vegetables that can be planted by seed into the garden are: beets, carrots, peas, onions, spinach, leaf lettuce, radishes. Cabbage and broccoli plants can be planted as soil conditions allow. In other words, don’t work our clay soils when they are wet.

Use row covers (Google it) on your vegetables right after planting to keep the bad bugs off. For vegetables that produce fruit (beans, cucumber, pepper, squash, tomatoes, etc.) remove the covers after blooming to let the pollinators go to work. For those that don’t need pollinating (Cabbage, broccoli, onions, chard, kale, lettuce, beets and radishes, etc.) you can leave the covers on until harvest. Make sure you buy the right covers that let in enough light and rain. I have found this to be an effective method to protect plants from bugs that damage vegetables.

Most annual flowers can be seeded directly into the soil after the danger of frost has abated. Some popular annuals that you should consider starting indoors are: snapdragon, wax begonia, sweet William, impatiens, sweet alyssum, petunia, gloriosa daisy, blue salvia, viola, pansy and zinnia, among others. This can save you a considerable amount of money that you can spend on a perennial.

Time spent on your lawn now will benefit it the rest of the year. Fertilize lightly if at all. The time to re-seed is when night time temps consistently reach 50 degrees and above. This is also the time to aerate lawns. Apply a pre-emergent herbicide when the first bloom appears on Bradford Callery pear in order to prevent crabgrass, unless you plan to seed. When common lilac or Ohio buckeye begins to bloom it is too late for a pre-emergent herbicide to be effective and too early for a post-emergent. Leave clippings on the lawn. Their nitrogen content is high and will reduce the need to fertilize. Mowing height of at least three inches will retard the growth of crab grass and other weeds.

Unless you are prepared to cover plants in case of frost, don’t put out those tender plants such as tomatoes and peppers until mid-May or later when the soil warms up. The average last frost date is now April 23rd. There is a 50/50 chance of frost then and the chance decreases about 10% per week after that. Spring flowering bulbs should be fertilized after they bloom. Remember to leave the leaves of bulbs until they yellow. Brown is better. Also prune spring blooming shrubs after they bloom.

If April brings its overhyped showers don’t work the soil if it is too wet.  Wait until it dries out a bit. If it seems wet enough to make a clay pot, wait. Squeeze a ball of earth about the size of a golf ball and let it drop from waist high, if it breaks apart it’s ready to be worked. Don’t apply mulch until May. Allow the soil to warm.

Cut back your ornamental grasses to six inches. Cut back your butterfly bushes (buddleia) to a foot or two and apply a balanced fertilizer. Now is the time to prune roses. Depending on the variety, you may prune back to a foot in height. Cut off those bagworms from shrubs and trees. Do it now before the worms hatch out (shortly after the Snow mound Spirea blooms). Dispose of the bags in the trash or bury them. One bag left equals a hundred plus new bags that won’t show themselves until this fall. Don’t postpone it.