April

•    Plant pansies, snapdragons, dianthus and dusty miller for early-spring color.
•    Plant new trees, shrubs and perennials and transplant/divide existing ones.
•    Plant any of the edibles that could have been planted in March. Or make a second planting of any of these for a staggered harvest.
•    If you underdid it with bulbs, add instant spring color by planting blooming, potted bulb plants from the garden center. These are ideal for early-spring flower pots, too.
•    Start cutting back early bulbs, but only after the foliage has at least begun to yellow. Brown is better. It’s OK to snip off flower stalks as soon as the blooms fade.
•    From mid-month on (once soil has warmed a bit), mulch new beds and cultivate and top off mulch on beds that were mulched in previous years.
•    Direct-seed beets and carrots.
•    Immediately after blooming, prune early-spring-flowering trees and shrubs such as forsythia, redbud, star magnolia, viburnum, cherry, pear and bridalwreath spirea. Evergreen hedges also can be sheared.
•    Early in the month, prune roses right before new growth gets going. Start your spraying and fertilizing program as soon as the roses leaf out.
•    Dethatch, aerate and/or rake lawn, if needed. Begin cutting as grass begins growing. After the first cut or two, move the height up to 2½ to 3 inches. Cut high all summer.
•    This is a great month to seed thin or dead patches in the lawn. (Do NOT use crabgrass preventer if seeding new grass.) Use sod for quick spot patching.
•    Dig out or spot-spray weeds. Last chance to put crabgrass preventer on lawn (except for Dimension, which can go on in May).
•    Apply weed preventers such as Preen or corn gluten to shrub and perennial beds.
•    Late in month, fertilize lawn. Also fertilize trees, shrubs and perennials if you didn’t do it in March. This is a good time to do a soil test of your lawn and gardens if you haven’t done it in a few years. This will tell you exact fertilizer needs.
•    Scout for pest problems and treat as needed. Watch for aphids on roses, burning bush and many other ornamentals; tent caterpillars on fruit trees; weevils on pines and spruce; mites on spruce and psyllids on boxwoods.
•    Begin regular spraying program for fruit trees. Do not use insecticides on fruit trees when they’re blooming to avoid killing pollinating bees.
•    Begin feeding outdoor fish as they come out of dormancy and come to the surface. Remove pond heater and reconnect pumps for fountains and waterfalls.
•    Resume feeding houseplants. Wait until mid-May, though, to begin moving them outside for summer.
•    Remember, still no digging the soil whenever it’s soggy. Wait until it dries a bit.