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Plan - Planting - Care
We are a Garden Club of interested members, we have a website, a regular newsletter, blog, garden journal, monthly programs, events, workshops, Flower Show & Tea, Plant Sale, and garden tours. Our goal is to help teach amateurs and Garden Club Members, how to plan a garden; what to plant; soils & fertilizers; how to plant; trees, shrubs, lawns and their care; perennials; annuals; pests and their remedies; pruning; and to answer the average questions asked by the average gardener via this Garden Journal.
Timing is everything when your goal is a beautiful lawn and garden. These April gardening tips and chores apply to USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 7.
Flowers & Vegetables:
There is still time to transplant or plant new deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs this month.
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After the first heavy frost, all the tops of the perennials should be cut off close to the ground, and the annuals gathered up and all of them burned. They have eggs of pests and spores of disease on them that you do not want in your garden next year, so destroy them.
Do not place any kind of winter covering on perennials until the ground has several inches of frost on it. Remember, it is not the cold you are trying to keep out by the winter covering; you are trying to prevent the freezing and thawing process that heaves the plants out of the ground.
The date of covering the plants may vary according to the season; sometimes it is not until the middle of December. When the ground is frozen, add light mulch. Never put on a heavy layer of leaves. You will smother more plants than you will save. Oak leaves are satisfactory or strawy manures. Evergreen boughs are useful. Be sure no heavy mulch is on the crowns of hollyhocks, delphiniums, Shasta daisies or pinks. These plants stay green at their crowns all winter and will rot if covered too deeply. Be sure there is drainage around each plant so that water does not cover the crown.
Salt hay: the light material that bananas are shipped in, makes an excellent covering for rock plants. Also use branches of evergreens if they can be had. After the holidays there are usually some Christmas trees that can be had for the hauling. Cut off the branches and lay them over the plants and they will give adequate protection for the balance of the winter.
Hydrangeas that are only hardy in the northern climate (the pink and blue ones) must have some kind of winter protection because they bloom from the old wood. Place a wire netting about the plant and fill with leaves. If the plant is small, put a bushel basket upside down over it, with straw or leaves around the stems.
It is objectionable to have to make winter coverings around the plants that are close to the dwelling. What is the use of having an evergreen that is to be wrapped and tied up in the cold weather? It is better to have deciduous plants. The only reason for evergreens in the northern region is to have something green when everything else is brown, and if they have to be wrapped in winter and so be an eyesore, they have lost their main purpose.
Rhododendrons, laurel and hemlocks do not like a wind-swept location. They should have other plants as protection or be near buildings. If they are not in the open, do not put boards or boxes over them. They are too unsightly. Place branches of cut evergreens between them. Soak the roots with water before the ground freezes. The reason their leaves curl in zero weather is because they cannot get moisture out of the frozen ground. Mulch will help heavy roots functioning. Be sure that there is a heavy depth of leaves over the ground around them.
There is no need to cover an established shrubbery bed with manure each fall. These plants are hardy and the only reason that fertilizer need be used is to enrich the soil. If the plants are healthy, add no mulch or fertilizer.
Hill up (mound) your rose beds with soil 9 inches high. Cut off the long whips or branches so that they do not let air into the lower regions.
Program Chairs work to educate members and plan the events, classes or workshops for the incoming new program year. New program ideas are always welcome.
“Gourds in Your Garden” for crafting and containers
Decorate a Birdhouse, (workshop)
“Clematis”
“Hydrangeas in your Landscape”
“Trellises and Social Climbers”
“Growing Dahlias and Gladiolas”
“Dried Flowers – Planting thru Harvest “
Vegetable Gardening – bring vegetable dish and copy of recipe
“Care of Flowering House plants”
Vegetable Tasting – All members will bring a vegetable dish and a copy of the recipe
Ideas for a Sunny Perennial Flower Bed
Hummingbirds and Their Gardens
Ornamental Plants for Winter Gardens
Creating a Back yard Habitat for Birds
Holistic Aromatherapy for the “Pampered Pooch”
“How Plants Enhance the Home Décor”.
“Season’s Finale” a study of Chrysanthemums
“Christmas in the Country” - the art of holiday decorating
“Fragrant Bulbs” what to plant to delight the senses
How to create a Hanging Basket
“Soil Testing, Grass & Shrub Care”
“Getting Roses Ready for a New Season”
Root Cutting and Propagation Demonstration
Fall plant exchange. Each member is asked to bring three plants and provide care instructions for each.
“Raised Bed Vegetable Gardening” & The Perfect Tomato”
“Cold Frames – Design & Use”
“Summer Bulbs – Planting and Storage”
December – Cookie Exchange; bring dozen cookies for each member & exchange (also recipe)
“Kitchen Scrap Pants”
“Christmas Trends, Old and New”
Lawn Maintenance and Turf Care - (invite a master gardener)
“Lavender’s Blue” - the cultivation, harvesting and use of lavender
“Workshop: Make a Mosaic Garden Accessory”
Informational program on OSU Extension Master Gardener Course
Vocational School Horticultural Program, invite an instructor
Growing “Hydrangeas”
“Make a Suet Bag” or "How to Make a Suet Birdfeeder"
Insects in the Garden: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
Water-wise Ornamental Gardening
Sound mowing practices are necessary to obtain a good quality lawn. This is especially true during the summer months. Improper mowing practices during periods of drought and high temperatures may seriously damage turfgrass.
Kentucky bluegrass lawns should be mowed at a height of 3 to 3 1/2 inches during the summer months. Bluegrass lawns should be mowed at a height of 2 to 2 1/2 inches in the spring and fall. The additional leaf area during summer shades and cools the crowns of the turfgrass plants. During hot weather, the temperature near the crown area of short-mowed turfgrass may be 20 degrees F or more above the air temperature. Extremely high temperatures at their crowns can kill turfgrass plants. The higher mowing height also provides more food-producing foliage and promotes deeper root growth.
When mowing the lawn, never remove more than 1/3 of the total leaf area at any one time. Removing more than 1/3 of the leaf area severely injures the turfgrass plants and reduces their ability to withstand additional environmental stresses.
If possible, mow in the cool of the morning or evening. Mowing at midday places additional stress on the turf and may also cause heat stress related problems for the individual mowing the lawn.
Another important key to proper mowing during the summer months is a sharp blade. Dull blades tear and bruise the leaf tips. The damaged tissue dries out giving the turf surface a whitish appearance. The damaged leaf tissue also suffers greater water loss. The mower blade doesn't have to be razor sharp. A properly sharpened blade has no nicks and is smooth on the bottom with a 30 to 45 degree bevel towards the top of the blade.
Change the mowing direction or pattern each time the lawn is mowed. Different mowing patterns reduce soil compaction and turf wear from the mower wheels. Wear damage is most likely in thin or shady areas. Also, mowing the lawn repeatedly in the same direction pushes the grass over rather than cutting it cleanly.
Dormant lawns (those that have turned brown) should not be mowed. Pedestrian and mower traffic could damage the turf. Grass that is still growing should be properly mowed following recommended practices.
The benefits to keeping a garden journal are many. How many times have you thought you would remember to do a task in early spring, only to forget about it completely over the winter? When you try to garden from memory, you’re simply not as well-equipped to make decisions or carry out your plans. What you choose to record, however, and the format you decide to keep your journal in, are highly personal choices. Try to decide first what you’d like your journal to accomplish. Here are some of the functions a garden journal can perform:
Planning source. Perhaps the most satisfying type of garden journal is the dream book, filled with notes taken on garden tours, photos of public gardens, magazine pictures of gorgeous plant combinations or perhaps the perfect pergola. This format serves as a source of inspiration and a beginning point for future plans. You may also simply need a place to jot down reminders – like, “move lily bulbs to back of border when foliage begins to die in fall.” Another type of planning journal may have graph-paper pages, for scale drawings of garden plans.
Record keeper. This type of journal can take many formats. Perhaps you want to keep notes on what blooms when – a book with one page devoted to each day of the year will allow you, at a glance, to see the past three years and what was in flower during the first week of April. It’s also a good place to keep records on the exact names of plants, since labels invariably become lost or illegible in the ground. You can organize your records by date, month, season, garden area, or whatever. You could even develop a monthly maintenance calendar that outlines when to stake the peonies (before they get too tall), when to prune the roses, and when to fertilize the lawn.
Organizer. A journal with pockets or plastic sleeves can help you keep track of garden catalogs, receipts, order forms, helpful magazine articles, seed packets, notes that you scribbled on a scrap paper, etc. A pretty decoupage box can also be a good place to keep things together – no one says a journal has to be a book.
Personal journal. More like a traditional journal, this format allows a gardener to write about the impact their garden makes on their life. It’s a place for reflection – on the miracle of rebirth of spring, the impatience that accompanies planting a small plant, the delights of nature.
Photo album. For those who aren’t much into writing, snapshots tell a story too. Looking back on spring’s photos from autumn’s perspective can remind you what needs to be moved or divided, or where there is a gap in your succession of bloom.
Bookstores often feature blank garden journals that feature artwork, quotes, or horticultural info. Some other suggestions for journal possibilities include: blank books, calendars, accordion files, a scrapbook, a photo album, a loose-leaf binder. Web Journals are nice and open to the public to share.
If you have a yard or garden, you know that grass clippings, leaves, dead plants, tree branches and shrub trimmings can add up fast--especially in late summer. An alternative to having it hauled away is to turn all the organic waste into compost.
The first thing to know about composting is what can and can't be composted. The simple answer is--any plant material that was once alive can be composted:
Do not compost the following materials:
On a smaller scale, starting your own home composting system is pretty easy. You can either buy a commercial composting bin or build one yourself. The choice really depends on how much material you have to recycle and how fast you want to make finished compost
Tasks that can be done
Wired, Filled , and transplanted...
If you don't have room for a flower garden, consider a garden of windowboxes and hanging baskets. They are easy to plant as well as visually rewarding, but they can be tricky to water without creating soil and water runoff. There are solutions to the problems, however.
To prevent soil from running out over the top of the pots when watering, cover the soil completely with a heavy layer of gravel.
To prevent water from running out of the bottom of hanging baskets before being absorbed into the soil, try watering with ice cubes. Place cubes around the base of the plant; they will melt slowly, giving the soil time to absorb the moisture. Check moisture levels in the soil as you water to determine how many ice cubes are needed to ensure a thorough watering of the basket.
Requirements:
Water is always needed to allow vigorous metabolism to begin. It is also sometimes needed to leach away a germination inhibitor within the seed. This is especially common among desert annuals. The inhibitor is often abscisic acid (ABA).
The seeds of many temperate-climate angiosperms will germinate only after a prolonged period of cold. An inhibitor within the seed (probably abscisic acid - ABA) is gradually broken down at low temperatures until finally there is not enough to prevent germination when other conditions become favorable. This mechanism is of obvious survival value in preventing seeds from germinating during an unseasonably warm spell in the autumn.
Gerrmination is the resumption of growth of the embryo plant inside the seed.
Seedlings/Sapplings
Let's us know all the dirt on your transplants...
Color combinations...
The ideal site for a greenhouse is a south to southeast exposure so it can capture all the available light.
As with any structure, a good foundation is crucial, especially where winds are strong. Pour a reinforced concrete footer that extends roughly four inches below grade and four inches above. Use bolts to secure the base plate of the greenhouse to the foundation. For the floor, you can pour a concrete foundation or simply lay down a single sheet of landscape fabric, and cover it with mulch.
One of the most important things to consider when planning a greenhouse is the type of overhead glazing or covering material used. The least expensive is plastic sheeting, but you'll need to replace it every two to three years. Rigid polycarbonate is another choice, and although it lasts a good deal longer than plastic sheeting, it tends to yellow over time. The most durable and expensive of all glazing materials is glass--specifically, tempered glass. No other material captures more light, especially precious winter light.
If the greenhouse will be used year-round, consider your climate. In the northern border states, heat will obviously be required in the cold months, but a cooling device for summer may not be necessary. In the Deep South a greenhouse must be cooled but probably will not have to be heated. In the nation's midsection, both heating and cooling are a must for gardening throughout the year.
Even when the temperature outside is really cold, so long as the sun is shining, the temperature inside the greenhouse can soar. As a matter of fact, for a glass greenhouse, the outside temperature may be 32 degrees and the inside temperature may be close to 100 degrees
For gardeners in all but the most northern climes, controlling temperature during the summer months is essential and usually requires more than one cooling device. Roof vents and shade cloth help reduce inside temperatures; an evaporative cooler does the rest.
To produce strong, healthy plants and reduce their risk of infection from fungal diseases, install a good fan to improve air circulation. A minimum/maximum thermometer is also required.
Benches of various heights will be needed to set plants on. One should be counter height and designated as a potting bench. Some growers prefer wooden benches, but insects can overwinter in the wood, so many gardeners have switched to plastic.
With a greenhouse in place, winter is no deterrent--orchids and other tropicals and warm-season veggies such as tomatoes and peppers are just a step away.
Vegetable seed
Vegetable plants
Fruit & Nut trees
Small Fruit & berries
Perennials & roses
Flowering bulbs
Ground covers and vines
Shrubs, hedges, grasses
Trees
Growing Aides
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