APRIL IS WELCOME
TIME FOR GARDENERS
April’s weather is unpredictable. The warm
morning sun wakes up the garden, and, by eve-ning,
cold rain is pelting the plants.
But it’s exciting to see the trees leaf out, early
perennials sprout and cool-weather crops thrive.
It won’t be long until temperatures even out, and
we’ll be walking barefoot in the garden nibbling
on sweet cherry tomatoes.
Don’t put off weed prevention
Getting after weeds early is imperative to a suc-cessful
season. My favorite way to deal with them
is putting down seven to 10 layers of newspaper
over compost or a garden bed improved with
organic matter.
Get the paper wet to keep it in place and then
add mulch. Now just poke holes in the mulch
and newspaper for planting. Newspapers use soy
and water based inks, so they are safe around
food crops. Don’t use the shiny inserts from the
paper. They could have inks that use heavy met-als.
Peas are early starters
It’s not too late to plant peas. My first crop al-ways
go in on St. Patrick’s Day, but then I’ll plant
more later. They love cool weather, and there’s
nothing like fresh peas harvested as summer ar-rives.
Get the cool-weather crops planted
There are plenty of other cool-weather crops
that will enjoy being planted right now.
GARDEN CALENDAR
Pansies are a spring favorite, and they love the cool weather.
Peas sprout in the greenhouse
after an early planting.
6 | APRIL 2018 • Vo l . 3 , I s s u e 4