April 2006

Edible

Start a veggie garden with your kids or grandkids. A garden can provide a “hands on” learning experience for youngsters. Choose veggies or flowers that grow quickly like lettuce, radishes, cucumbers, squash and onions. Flowers like zinnias, sunflowers and marigolds are easy to grow. Give kids their own garden space. Make a small sign and let kids name their garden. Don’t overwhelm kids with too many things to do in the garden. Let them plant seeds in a circle instead of the traditional straight lines. Remember it is their garden. Purchase a small watering can. All kids love to water. Use the garden to sneak in a little math. Use a ruler to measure correct distances between plants or for the proper spacing of seeds in a row. Have them do a journal of their gardening experiences. In the journal they might record the day’s weather, what insects or birds they saw, or what they did in the garden. More information about gardening with kids is available on the U of I Extension’s website My First Garden.

Prepare your garden soil for planting. Dig or till the soil at least 8-12 inches deep. Do not dig soil when it is wet. Soil tilled when wet will dry into clods of concrete. Check soil before digging by squeezing a handful in your hand. If it crumbles easily between your fingers, go ahead and dig, but if it stays in a ball, allow the soil to dry an additional couple of days. 

Resist the urge to plant during warm spring weather. Temperatures can vary widely from day to day in the spring. It is not unusual to have a few days in the 70’s followed by  cold 40 F temperatures. Our average date of last frost is around May 15, but you should always be prepared to cover newly planted plants during spells of cold weather. 

Ornamental

Plan now for a butterfly garden. Choose an area the gets at least 6-8 hours of sun. Place some dark colored rocks or boulders in the garden to provide a resting stop for the butterflies. Butterflies will bask in the sun during cool weather to raise their body temperatures in order to fly well. Butterflies ideally need to keep their body temperature at 85 to 100 degrees F. When butterflies are warm, they can fly longer, feed longer, search longer for mates and potentially lay more eggs thereby producing more butterflies. Plant flowers that bloom throughout the growing season in large groups. Butterfly magnets include the Butterfly bush, Purple coneflower, Joe-Pye weed, Black-eyedSusan, Lantana, Brazilian verbena, and Sedum 'Autumn Joy' 

Spring is pruning time. Correct pruning of spring flowering shrubs will provide more blooms and keep the plant healthy. Lilacs, forsythia and spireas should be pruned two weeks after blooming. Shrubs that bloom in the spring need all summer to produce flower buds for next year. Pruning these shrubs in the summer or fall would greatly reduce next springs flower display. Summer flowering shrubs like hydrangeas and hibiscus should be pruned in the winter or early spring before new growth starts. Overgrown, muti-stemmed shrubs can be renewed by the thinning and removal of the largest stems. Remove one-fourth of the oldest and largest diameter stems. Cut them back to one to three inches above the ground. Shrubs that are good candidates for renewal pruning include lilacs, mockorange, weigela, forsythia, and red and yellow twig dogwoods. 

Divide and replant perennials. Divide perennials when plants get too big or when you want to move them to another spot in the garden. Most perennials can be divided in the spring except for peonies and bearded iris. Divide iris in August and peonies in September. Dig out at least 4-inch diameter sections of the clump. Smaller sections will not bloom for a couple of years. Replant immediately. It may take two growing seasons for the new plant to establish itself. 

Prepare lawn for the mowing season. Rake away all twigs and debris. Have the lawn mower blades sharpened, replace the spark plugs and change the oil. Apply the first application of fertilizer in early May. Have your lawn core aerified. This process will pull up small cores of soil to the surface. Core aerification helps to reduce thatch problems, soil compaction and poor drainage. Machines can be rented. Make two trips across the lawn, the second trip perpendicular to the first. An average of 15 to 20 aeration holes per square foot is recommended. 

Seed bare spots in the lawn. Dig up the soil and add a starter fertilizer. Sprinkle on a good seed mix of bluegrass and fescue. Rake lightly to mix seed with soil. Tamp to assure seed-soil contact. Keep well watered for two to three weeks until the seed has germinated.