We are already well into April, so I guess I should get started on what needs to get done this month. This is going to be a busy month in the garden and also at work. I'm going to stick to the essentials, which is getting the seeds and seedlings in the ground. All those gardening projects are going to have to wait for when I have more time! (17 work days until summer break.. not that I'm counting ;)
- Make plant labels - ok, so this is the one project I need to do so that I can label everything as I plant.
- Plant sweet potatoes - This is my first year trying sweet potatoes. I'm going to try to grow them with my corn and see how that goes.
- Plant seeds outside: peanuts, beans, corn, beets, carrots, radish, swiss chard, sunflowers, marigolds, nasturiums, yarrow, borage
- Plant herbs: ginger, lemon grass, dill, sage, basil, chamomile
- Transplant: Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, melons
- Start woodland garden: There's a shady spot in the front yard that I want to convert to a woodland garden. This year the goal is to plant some shrubs and understory trees.
- Work on front flower bed: The flower bed looks lovely in spring, but the winter appeal is horrible. I want to add some evergreen shrubs and maybe an evergreen vine to make it a bit less dreary in the winter. There's also some spaces that need flowers to fill.
With all the warm weather this spring has brought, it has been tempting to set things out earlier. Now I'm glad I didn't have the time because we have a frost advisory tonight! My main concern is the strawberries that are already flowering and fruiting, so I covered them. My other worry are all the
flowers that have bloomed. Keeping my fingers crossed that the frost isn't too bad.
We are fortunate in Australia because a lot of the native plants flower in winter which makes it easy to have a pretty winter garden. Hope the frost doesn't do too much damage.
ReplyDeleteThe frost didn't happen, but there's another frost advisory tonight even though the predicted low is 4 degrees above freezing. After that we should be frost free.. average frost date is April 14th and the ten day forecast is looking toasty again.
DeleteIt will be interesting to see how the corn and the sweet potatoes do together. I usually plant corn and squash so I have something the runs under the corn. Squash is a heavy feeder just like corn though. And sweet potatoes aren't. It might be a good combination.
ReplyDeleteI'll see how it goes. The main reason is that I didn't really plan for sweet potatoes, so I had to squeeze them in somewhere. My corn is usually done by the end of July, so that should give the sweet potatoes some time on their own. I went to get slips this week and the farmer's exchange says they don't get them 'til May!
DeleteI totally resisted planting anything early during that warm spell. You just knew that Mother Nature was going to hit us with some more cool weather.
ReplyDeleteYour flower beds look great! I think that I finally have mine looking reasonable year round.
Yeah, Mother Nature likes to sneak in that random frost right when it seems that spring has definitely arrived. It didn't get as cold as predicted, so all the flowers are fine.
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