Garden -- April

No jokes today, we don't do that.  Our time for jokes was almost a month ago.
Anyway, here are this month's jobs in the DC area.
Cornmeal gluten -- put it down soon.
Grass seed -- DON'T PUT IT DOWN.
The Scott's adds telling you to "seed it" are telling you to waste your money.
In the DC area, grass seed is a waste of money until about July.
Use your search engine to find Mike McGrath's articles on grass seeding.
Bulb plants and pruning:
See Mike's article from this past weekend.
Veggies: you should be able to plant green peas, snow peas, Autumn King carrots, roots, and leafy greens over this next week.
For potatoes, see if there's an oak tree near you.
It's in bud now and when the young leaves are "the size of a mouse's ear" that's when you can plant potatoes.
If you're going to start your tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and other summer veggies inside, this would be the week to do that. 
If you've switched to CFLs for lighting, that would be useable lighting.
LEDs would not.
Remember to turn off the germination mat after the seeds germinate.

And of course, start mowing.  Keep your grass at 3 inches long
The shade of the grass will prevent Japanese beetles from laying eggs, preventing grubs.
If you get starlings on your lawn every summer, you're mowing too short.  The birds are there to feast on Japanese beetle grubs.
But 3 inches is short enough that the creeping charlie (ground ivy) won't get enough shade to encourage it.
For shady areas there's an iron compound that won't poison the soil.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved