One of my favorite times to be a horticulturist and gardener in Atlanta is in April. We get to sit back, relax, watch the ferns unfurl and the flowers bloom. I love to grab a cocktail in the late daylight saving afternoon and sit still while the bees hurriedly buzz about, frantically harvesting the first drops of nectar and pollen. Good news, everyone! There is nothing to do in April. Absolutely nothing.

And if you believed that, APRIL FOOLS! Because there is so very much to do in April. We are rapidly approaching the last frost date and as of this writing (April 1, 2022) it appears the arctic vortices are Netflix and chilling for the spring season.

Let’s get started because even though we are right on time, we are already late. (Nature is sorta like that toxic workplace boss with the mantra “If you are early, you’re on time. If you are on time, you’re late.” Because nothing creates quite the sense of terror than establishing that your scheduled time, in print, by your boss is a lie. But it’s all good because “we are like family, here.”)

Perennials and Annuals

With the threat of frost in most metro Atlanta and North Georgia areas over, it’s time to sow seeds that either have to be planted in situ (fancy way of saying “where you want them to grow”) or that you forgot to start early inside. Note that anything that needs frost/cold stratification (fancy way of saying “needs frost to break the seed coat”) will have to be manually stratified (fancy way of saying “scuffed up with sand paper or something”) or artificially cold stratified (fancy way of saying “put in moist sand or paper towel and placed in fridge or freezer”). Consult your seed packet for this kind of information. Also, I wrote that entire paragraph in a British accent to really impress how fancy those terms are.

Roses should already be pruned down. If you forgot, drop everything and go do them now. Even if you have to call in to work to do it. Do it. I’ll attach a fake doctor’s note for you.

Deadhead any flowering bulbs that are finished flowering. You may divide and transplant sizable colonies of flowering bulbs now to spread the love. Except tulips. Don’t waste time on doing anything with your tulips as we are not tulip country (believe it or not, tulip country is natively Persia, and tulip is the anglicized word for turban), and treat them as annuals. Summer bulbs can be planted now.

If any of your perennials are still largely dormant or just breaking dormancy, you may still divide them. If they are more than 5 inches leave them be and make note to divide them in fall (except phlox and iris).

It isn’t too late to apply pest and fungus sprays. Follow the directions on your preferred product.

Shrubs and Trees

You should be fertilizing now. Like NOW now. For trees, apply fertilizer no less than 2 inches away from the trunk, but concentrate most of your fertilizer near the drip line, which is just outside the edge of the tree canopy. This is where most of the root hairs exist, which is where most of the water and nutrient absorption takes place. For shrubs, broadcasting a good organic fertilizer will be fine. If using synthetic, follow the instructions on the product package. I generally don’t advise using 10-10-10 fertilizer every year, as phosphorus and potassium have a tendency to sit in the soil and can build up. If these macro nutrients get too high, they can cause nutrient lock with some of the micro nutrients.

Veggies and Herbs

Fertilize the last of the winter veggies. It’s possible to still get a few root veggies going, but I would stick with carrots and beets. If it starts to get too warm, you can still eat the greens. Beans and curcurbits (cukes, melons, squash) can be planted by seed now. Or you can get a ton of great selections from the Wylde Center or Love is Love Farm plant sales. Tomatoes and peppers can be started from seed, but they require soil temps to be in the 70’s. You can heat your soil by surrounding your plantings with black weed fabric, plastic, or stones. Or you can do what I do and just let the experts start them for you and buy them directly (see suggestions above).

Lawns

TL;DR: Start setting your mowers higher. You can sow cool-season grasses yesterday. The later it gets the less successfully it will germinate. Warm season grasses are good to go. Sodding is in full swing. Fertilize lawns near the end of April. Top dress with screened compost or composted manure (never fresh).

Editorial silliness now:

I’m going to be honest with you all…lawn turfs are not my speciality. I’m one of those people who can learn and retain a great deal of information on anything I’m marginally interested in. And turf grass has never been one of those things. In school, I’m pretty certain the only reason I passed Turf Grass Management was because I suffered a major family loss and the professor felt sorry for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I know people LOVE their lawns. Especially men. Even more especially straight men. I have a neighbor (whom I adore) who will become completely blind to the rest of his garden as long as his grass is a beautiful lush green. I swear, I saw him once crouching with a ruler making sure it didn’t get too tall.

And I do often advocate for at least one small area of turf. It gives the eye a clean, unchallenging place to rest before taking in the rest of the garden. And gives dogs a great place to poop (except the aforementioned neighbor’s grass. He will go banana cakes if he sees a dog pooping on his lawn).

But grass isn’t my passion. And it shows in my own garden where my itty patch of turf is a good ol’ southern lawn; riddled with clover, violets, and the last vestiges of maybe fescue the previous owner planted.

Another TL;DR: I’ll continue to place lawn tasks in my To Do posts, but they will be very institutional. Though I am proficient in turf grass management (I did actually get an A), it just isn’t a subject I can speak to for hours. If you are having lawn issues, turn to companies that specialize in turf grass. I am not the gardener you are looking for (waves hand Obi Wan Kenobi style).

The Take Away

There is a lot to do this month to make life easier and your garden more enjoyable in the months to come. As always, enjoy your garden. Every time you connect with your garden, you are connecting to nature and a piece of yourself.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! As is often the case, we step into March in a flurry of pollen, which many Georgians call “The Pollening,” which follows “Third Winter.”

So let’s load up on our antihistamines, refill our neti pots, and jump right into what to do this month in the garden. (If you’re a TL;DR person and you have already purchased your summer veggies from the closest Big Box Store, skip down to PLANTING.)

Shear those (broadleaf) hedges! Boxwoods, hollies, distylium, and other broadleafed evergreens are ready to be sheared and shaped. Any broadleaf evergreen that isn’t scheduled to bloom in the spring or early summer can be pruned. Fathers around the city can gleefully exert their will on another living thing in what might be the suppressed need to control something in their environment without it talking back at them.

If your conifers are growing, you may prune them now as well, but ONLY if they have new growth.

Continue to spray sulphur on plants that have had insect issues in the previous years.

Trees, shrubs, perennials, and lawns will all benefit from a top dressing of screened compost.

Lawns can be dethatched and aerated as well. If you spread winter rye, you may mow it to 1” now.

Mulching should be on your agenda soon. If you don’t normally mulch, consider starting this as a habit. Not only does mulch save you time and energy on weeding, it also improves soil quality. Many of my more particular clients prefer we remove last year’s mulch and replace. For those of us who are interested in sustainability and being economical (I was trying to figure out a way to combine economical and ecological into one word, but just couldn’t do it) lay your new mulch on top of the old. Not only is it less work, it also preserves your new mulch for a longer period of time.

PLANTING

I’ve seen a few posts on NextDoor and received messages from neighbors and clients itching to plant.

Cool season plants like lettuce, kale, carrots, beets, and others can still be planted. Dormant perennials and hearty trees and shrubs can also be planted. But almost everyone really wants to know about their tender herbaceous plants; tomatoes, basil, peppers and the like.

Short answer: it is too early to plant. Our last frost date is April 15th. This isn’t our average or mean average last frost date. This is the actual last frost date. We haven’t had frost after tax day. In my 23 years here in Atlanta, we have had many frosts on the 15th.

Long answer: Planting tender herbaceous plants before the last frost date doesn’t behoove you or the plants. As we approach the equinox, the soil temperatures are actually cooling where the air temperatures are warming. Tender herbaceous plants, like many herbs, and certainly any non native solanacea (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, tomatillo, etc) are understandably going to be unhappy with cool air temperatures, but they are going to be downright petulant if the soil temperature is cold.

Petulant tomatoes! What does that even look like? A tomato that has been planted in cold soil will actually refuse to grow for a while. The cold soil will prevent root hairs from growing, and if root hairs aren’t growing, their dying. Root hairs are the drama kid of the plant anatomy. They are either exuberant, pushing madly through the soil, or languishing with their root hair hands across their brows, crying “I literally can’t even!” And then they die. So when soil temperatures and air temp are perfect, the tomato has to grow new root hairs. And they will prioritize root growth over vegetative or (more importantly) flower/fruit growth.

I can hear you thinking “Ok, Joshua. If it’s the wrong time to plant these things, why do the Big Box Stores sell them, huh? They wouldn’t steer me wrong. They want me to succeed. What do you have to say to that, Mr. Smartypants horticulturist?”

Profit. That’s what I have to say.

We run out, buy our favorite ‘maters, then pop them in the ground the first weekend of March and say “Stupid horticulturist. He doesn’t know anything.” And then we get freezing temps the second weekend of March and have to buy those plants all over again. And the CEO’s laugh. No, it’s true. They laugh. They laugh at those who bought the tomatoes twice (or three to four times if you’re really stubborn), and they laugh at the horticulturists who are basically Cassandras warning everyone that the big wooden horse is full of frost.
And then you know what they do? They stop selling tomatoes around the middle of May and start trying to convince you to buy Halloween or (even worse) Winter Holiday décor. In May. Pools haven’t even opened yet and they are trying to convince us to snap up inflatable Santas and wicker deer. Meanwhile, you want a nice fried green tomato sammie, but all you have is a rosemary shrub trimmed up like a Christmas tree, bedecked in red ribbons. This is creating a false demand for tomatoes in February/March.

I digress.

I’m not saying don’t buy those tender herbaceous plants. In fact, do. Quickly. I went all year last year without Thai basil because I waited too long, and my home made pho mocked my choices with every spoonful. Buy them, but don’t plant them unless you can protect them. If you have already planted them, find something to cover them with when frost is in the forecast. You can even set a few dark stones around them to help harvest radiant heat. If you have them but haven’t planted them, set them outside during the day but pull them in on cold nights.

You can also set them in a garage. If you have a cold frame, be vigilant about popping it open during the day. I once forgot to tell my husband to open the cold frame while I was at a conference and came home to 8 trays of steamed vegetable and ornamental plants. Sad and smelly.

Lastly, don’t forget to enjoy your garden. Every time you connect with your garden, you’re connecting to a part of yourself and nature.