GARDENER COLUMN: Beginning your April gardening | House & Backyard

Enhance your garden with compost or well-rotten manure, or turn under your green manure after you’ve planted one last fall.

Walk around your yard to see what has survived and what needs to be replaced and / or shared. Start pruning any evergreen plants – other than pines and spruces. Spread fertilizer in your perennial beds when the soil can be tilled and only when fertilizer is needed. Remember, it is imperative that you do a soil test before applying the fertilizer. However, if you don’t have recommendations for soil testing, you can use a slow-release, low-nitrogen fertilizer if you didn’t fertilize last fall. Burns from too much nitrogen are less of a problem when using a slow release formula. However, always remember to read the label carefully.

Split up some of your perennials if you haven’t done so in a few years. As a rule of thumb, mothers divide every 1-2 years before they are three inches tall; Coreopsis or Tickseed, Yarrow, Gaillardia or Ceiling Flower every 2-4 years; and daisies and monarda or bee balm every 3-5 years. I’ve planted several new perennial beds over the past few years, so I hope I can divide up some to spread my plants out even more.

If you enjoy planting annuals, prepare your beds to be ready as soon as the weather is warm enough for them. However, if you have pansies, dusters, and snapdragons, once you’ve hardened them off, once you’ve started them yourself. After planting your annuals in cool weather, you can start some quick-starting annuals like bachelor buttons, marigolds, or zinnias indoors, especially if you want to enjoy their blooms earlier. Check your seedlings to see if they need to be transplanted from seed coats to larger containers. My seed geraniums need to be transplanted as they will germinate well and will grow out of the seed coat before I can plant them outside. I also have some tomato plants that have been mislabelled as Impatiens and will need to be repotted before I can put them outside. I don’t know what type of tomato it is, but I couldn’t bring myself to just throw it away.