My dear Fellow Gardeners,

Gardening is almost here, doesn't that sound truly wonderful? I have just come in from my garden; I’ve been cutting out more of those wretched thorn bushes, and enjoying my snowdrops. I am actually waiting for C.A.A. to come and pull me out of the mud. I had an appointment in Peterborough and, surprise surprise, I am sitting with my wheels firmly ensconced in a deep rut - one of several I might add! I can see a lot of raking is before me. I am also waiting for my dear friends to arrive from Toronto. Theresa Tova, an extraordinary blues singer, and her husband Bob. Theresa appeared in most of the E.N.G. series - one episode was her nightclub act. Her husband is a carpenter who builds sets for television studios - so much talent in this family that I am blessed to be able to call them my friends

So much to do and so little time to do it in - where do we begin? I am going to give you a list to get you started this month - some of the chores will have to wait until the ground has dried out somewhat. But for the month of April here’s something to help scratch that urge to garden itch!

The Whole Garden

• Begin digging new garden beds as soon as the ground is workable - do not rush this one.
• Prepare the soil for your precious seeds - peas should be planted as soon as possible - they love the cold weather to get started
• Start weeding your beds - for the weeds pop up, and it is easy to do whilst the soil is very moist.
• Water any newly planted trees, and shrubs.
• Start to remove mulch - remember s-l-o-w-l-y as soon as you see growth starting to appear.

Trees and shrubs

• Start to remove the compost mounded over the base of your roses as soon as the weather starts to warm up.
• If you have purchased bare-rooted roses, plant them as soon as the ground is workable. (Note: I never purchase bare rooted anything). Prune repeat-blooming roses as soon as the buds start to swell.
• Dig up and replant rooted suckers from own-rooted shrubs and roses. Or pot them up and save them for the plant sales or your nice neighbour!
• Re-plant any new shrubs that have heaved up out of the earth. These plants' roots will have been disturbed and pushed upwards.
• Finish transplanting any bushes before the buds start to swell.
• Plant trees, shrubs and vines that you have purchased, balled and burlapped or in containers.
• When you are re-planting, amend the soil with a few tablespoons of bone-meal or wood ashes around each one to improve flowering - a dose of Epsom salts works well too. If your asters have grown woody with age, this is a good time to dig and divide them by cutting young productive shoots and roots off the sides of the clump for re-planting. Toss the center of the clump on the compost pile.
• Tidy the mulch in your shrub beds, this is a good time to add more mulch whilst you can see where to put it.
• Prune any shrubs that you are growing for interesting summer leaves and/or winter interest.

Flowers and Grasses

• Re-plant any and all frost-heaved perennials (those which have been pushed upwards).
• Cut back ornamental grasses and sedum "Autumn Joy."
• Cut back plants that you have kept for winter interest to within several inches of the ground.
• Transplant and divide Summer and Fall blooming perennials, before the new season's growth kicks in.
• Clean up ground cover beds, dividing any overcrowded plants to give them room to overcrowd again!!
• Add a layer of finished compost and well rotted or purchased manure to your flower beds.
• Sow seeds of hardy annuals and perennials outdoors. Plant those precious pansies that we are all waiting for and any other cold tolerant annuals.
• Harden-off hardy and half-hardy seedlings.

Repair the lawn by oversowing grass seed or laying patches of sod - or even purchasing lawn patches to get rid of the “yellow dog stains". Cover any seed repairs with burlap or straw to keep the ground warm and protect the seeds from the birds.

Cut out dead stems and other winter damage; remove dead leaves from such plants as lungwort (Pulmonaria spp.) and bergenia (Bergenia cordifolia). If you wait much longer pruning may harm the new growth - so take a walk around your garden. When Veronica incana (common name?) emerges from the winter doldrums, it can look, dull, woody and frost damaged. After cutting this ground cover back to vital stems and clearing away the debris left over, dig up rooted sections for dividing. As long as the material is healthy, even the tiniest division of Veronica is viable and by fall will be a sturdy plant.

For your flower beds, a 2-inch top dressing provides nutrients, improves drainage and moisture retention, and helps keep plant roots cool in hot weather. If you have beds where you only grow annuals, you may choose to dig compost into the soil surface here.

When you are sowing seeds try foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea), bellflowers (Campanula spp) and hollyhocks (Alcea rosea). If you did not sow seeds of annual poppies (Papaver spp.) and forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica) last fall, sow them now, or as soon as the soil begins to warm up.

• For cold-tolerant plants try Pansies, Johnny-jump-ups, snapdragons and Dusty Miller (Senecio cineraria). These withstand some frost and will look good in spring and early fall when the weather is cool, with colours ranging from bright yellow, purple, blue to white red, and salmon pink. Pansies in particular bring early colours to drab garden beds and cheer up containers especially if placed by an entry way into the house. What is more welcoming than those smiling faces???

I spoke of hardening off. Before you move seedlings of hardy or half-hardy plants to the garden, acclimate them to the harsher conditions of outdoors. Set them out in a protected spot for an hour the first day, and then gradually increase the amount of time that they spend outdoors until they can be left outside overnight (watch that the frost is finished). Ideally, transplant on a dull, overcast day. Biennials, along with those half hardy or cool- weather annuals, are good candidates for hardening off toward the end of this month.

Fruits and Vegetables

• If you are starting a new asparagus bed, it requires preparation, but it is so well worth any effort required, for an established bed will produce fresh sweet asparagus for at least 20 years. Asparagus needs deep well-drained, preferably sandy, weed free soil enriched with compost or well rotted manure. Not an acid-lover, it likes a pH of 6.5 to 7.5 (which it mostly is in this area). You can amend your soil by using either an application of wood-ash or limestone during planting. Begin planting asparagus roots in early to mid-spring - clean out the grass from established beds. You will need about 25 plants (roots). One year after planting you will be able to harvest a few spears; from the third year onwards you will have an abundance. Look for Jersey Knight or Jersey King.
• Lay down planting rows with either black polyethylene or fibre mulch. In cold climates such as ours, these mulches warm the soil, retain moisture, and suppress weeds, resulting in earlier and more productive harvests. Garden staples may hold the strips down on protected areas, but if you get a lot of wind, bury the edges, use rocks or bundles of newspapers. Remember soggy soil will lead to pea rot, which is a fungus that browns and dries the leaves. Peas are also susceptible to powdery mildew, wilt and mosaic viruses. To avoid these problems organically, do not plant peas in the same place more than once in every three years, plant disease as resistant strains in well drained soil. Potash phosphorous and a pH over 6.0 are important for good yields. Do not forget to save a sunny well-drained spot rich in organic matter for your Onions and Shallots.
• Direct seed peas, fava beans and beets. Direct seed onions and shallots as soon as the soil can be worked, making sure that it is not still sodden. Direct seed lettuce, endive, escarole and spinach.
• Sow radishes, throughout the season, starting now, if you like them.
• Move broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower trans-plants into the garden. All these members of the cabbage family are very heavy feeders, needing humusy, fertile soil, ample water and a pH higher than 6.0 they readily deplete the soil that they are grown in - so a richly prepared bed is better each year. When transplanting pumpkins etc. the plants should not be more than 6 weeks old when planted outside, so do not start them too soon.
• Start melons, pumpkins, summer squash and winter squash indoors.
• Start tomatoes indoors.
• Start kitchen herbs indoors (or buy the young plants but leave indoors, until all danger of frost is past). Kitchen herbs to start indoors are: Basil, garlic chives, chives, cilantro (to which I am allergic) dill, fennel, lemon grass and sweet marjoram from seeds and from cuttings oregano, all the rosemarys and sages, summer and winter savoury and of course all the different thymes.
• Cut back your shrubby perennial herbs. Shrubby herbs to cut back are: Perennial sages, lavender, Greek oregano, French thyme and French tarragon all will benefit from a spring trim to stimulate new growth.

I know that some of you are about to extend your gardens or even make new beds. Start when the soil is workable. Workable soil is neither too wet not too dry. Ideally, it is crumbled and sticks together when you squeeze a handful, but breaks apart easily with the pressure of your thumb. If your new bed is in the lawn, you may wish to try a tool called a sod lifter to save the grass to use elsewhere.

After lifting the sod, dig the bed using either a shovel or a tiller, to work in plenty of compost or any other organic matter. Most tillers turn over soil to a depth of about 9 inches. In heavy clay soils, there is a possibility of hardpan, a sub-soil condition caused by clay being so dense that water cannot penetrate it. Water can sit on this hard tray and drown most of the roots of susceptible plants. Sometimes hardpan is so deep that you can plant on it successfully; try adding compost, etc. to add depth. Other times you must dig through it and break up the soil to increase aeration and drainage.

Preparing the soil for seeding: If you did not do this last fall, as I told you, then break up the clumps now, digging in well-rotted manure or compost, to improve the soil’s drainage, moisture retention and fertility.

Remove that winter mulch when growth begins, uncover plants such as perennials that were protected by evergreen boughs or other coverings – once they begin to show signs of life - once again s-l-o-w-l-y. Clear off dead leaves and any other debris deposited by the wind - where oh where did those plastic bags and beer bottles come from??? Uncover all your spring blooming plants. Remove the compost from your roses at least 3 inches away from the crown where the roots and stem join. Wait until the weather settles down to "warming" constantly, and not keep flipping back to winter.

Start weeding those beds. The sooner that you do this the faster you will get those weeds under control. Make sure that you pull out annual weeds before they set seed, otherwise you 'will have so many more to pull next year.

Water newly planted trees, shrubs, flowers and vegetables. Established plants usually have root systems wide enough, or deep enough, to find water in dry spells. Young or recently-moved plants, however, have neither deep nor well-established root systems. If the roots of the new plants dry out, they may go into shock and die - I know I keep telling you this, but you would be surprised how many of you 'forget'.

Prune repeat-blooming roses when the buds start to swell. Repeat bloomers include hybrid teas, grandifloras, and floribundas; if you grow repeat-blooming shrub roses this pruning is not mandatory. In mild climates, which ours is not, you may prune these roses in the winter rather than early to mid-spring. With shrub roses you need only to remove dead, damaged, spindly, or very old canes to keep the plant vigorous, and prune as necessary to improve the growth.

Well, this should satisfy some of your "gardening longings” for this month!

My dears - Good Gardening! Stay out of the mud - yes I was winched out – have a great weekend - do not overdo the cleanup. Hats, (raincoats) boots, gloves, sunscreen and be good to yourselves.

Lovingly, Beryl