April Newsletter

April Gardening

Ah, April in Phoenix: baseball games, warm but not frying and all of those wonderful smells. Orchid trees are in full bloom and the smell permeates the air, as do the chinaberries and all of the citrus trees. Pink jasmine is winding down, but its cousin angelwing is stepping up to the plate to keep that perfume scent going. By the end of the month, star jasmine will be in full bloom. The next two months are a continual nose treat.

Roses: The antique roses are full of fragrant blooms. For some of the one timers, this is their month! All of the lovely smells come with a small price; aphids! Hose them off with a hard blast of water. We also have ladybugs available at the store or a kit to send off for green lacewings. Both of these guys really munch the aphids. Keep feeding your roses. All of those blooms are hard work. They can use those nutrients. Our rose trees at the store have woken up and have some beautiful blooms. Come in and smell them! We were late canning the antiques, so it will be another couple of weeks before they are ready. By the end of April you need to start thinking of mulches for the roses and other summer tender plants. Organic mulch goes a long way towards cooling plant roots during our hot summer. Keep the mulch about 2 inches away from the stems of plants

Citrus: April is citrus month. Plant fun new varieties while its warm not hot. If you prune your trees up to the canopy, be sure to either paint the trunk or wrap it with tree wrap. Citrus thinks it’s a big bush and it holds it foliage down to protect its trunk, when you prune that away it becomes very susceptible to sunburn, so protect them. If your citrus trees lost a lot of leaves from the frost or over watering, follow the same procedure. Get ready for your next cycle of fertilization, which comes in May.

Grass: The Bermuda is waking up you can fertilize it with a high nitrogen concentration to help get it going. At the end of the month, when the heat really starts, you can think about reseeding. The nighttime temperatures need to stay above 65 degrees. Bermuda is a hot season grass. The hotter it is the happier it is, so wait for heat to reseed. We have common Bermuda seed as well as Majestic. Majestic is a hybrid Bermuda seed. It’s finer bladed with more turf like characteristic. Please wait to detach till the end of May or June. For those of you with the curse of nutgrass in your garden, we have gotten in our Manage. Manage is the only thing that works on nut grass, and it only kills about 80% of it (still it’s better than moving). I hate to have anyone use Manage till the time is right, since it costs so much money. Make sure your nutgrass is really actively growing (it needs heat for this), so that you can kill it. Remember that you can only do two applications of Manage a year, without hurting your Bermuda grass.

April is really a transitional month. By the end of the month, you need to start concentrating on your summer veggies and color. Plant cucumbers, cantaloupe, zucchini, watermelon, okra, black eyed peas all the hot stuff. SEEDS: We are really excited. Besides our Renee’s garden seeds and Rita Jo’s wildflowers. I have arranged to carry seeds from Native Seed Search. It’s an experiment for both of us, since their seeds have only been available thru their catalog or at their store in Tucson. NSS is a non-profit out of Tucson; their mission is to save old varieties of seeds, many of which were first farmed by Native Americans. They have wonderful varieties of heat tolerant vegetables that have adapted and grown in this region for years.

Start the annual summer color. Plant celosia, cosmos, gaillardia, impatients, lissianthus, Mexican hat, portulaca, salvia, sunflower, vinca and zinnia.

If you have small children and are thinking of doing some planting Log on to www.pharm.arizona.edu/centers/poisoncenter/plants/poison.html. They publish a whole list of poisonous plants. Many plants that we love (amaryllis, cyclamen, and daffodil) are quite toxic. It’s a good idea to get a list of what’s poisonous in your yard so that you can have it available for baby-sitters or other caretakers.

Tried of changing out pots? Consider succulents. Our big shady porches are the perfect spot for a variety of succulents. You can get quite a lot of color from the foliage, and they take a lot less watering. You can semi ignore them during the winter. In fact, most people kill them with kindness by over watering. Clay pots work best and the variety of sizes and shapes available is great.

April showers bring spring flowers. Stop and enjoy the rain, what a smell how fresh everything is. We are having a VERY dry year any rain helps. When we get the wind without the rain, check your plants. The wind really dries them out especially hanging baskets. The spring rains will also bring spring weeds. You can use selective herbicides to control them before they set seed. Remember a year of seeds bring seven of weeds.

Watering: It time to reset the timer. You should adjust the frequency to correspond with our warming temperatures. Good water is crucial to plant health. Here is a chart from the extension office that gives you some realistic perimeters. Much of downtown has clay soil so follow towards the longer intervals. Up north is sandier.