Things to do |

Planting time is now: 30-plus ways to get growing in the April garden

The saying may be “April showers bring May flowers,” but in our region, it’s the winter rains that normally end in March and bring flowers in March and April.

That’s the pattern we are seeing this year so far, though we may just get April showers, too. Either way, my garden’s April bloom is a rainbow of color, and I hope yours is, too!

Take a tour

• Garden tours abound this month. Find a listing at bit.ly/SDGardenTours.

• Take a hike. California lilacs have put on the most spectacular show this year. You’ll still find the vibrant blue blooms of woollyleaf Ceanothus (Ceanothus tomentosus) coloring up chaparral covered hillsides when you hike or drive through the inland valleys.

• Wherever you go, stay on the trail.  While photos of you standing (or sitting) in a field of wildflowers make great social media posts, your walking into the field crushes flowers and kills the plants you adore. Instead, stay on the road or on the trail. Frame your shot to show the flowers in the background.

• Don’t pick the flowers and don’t dig the plants. Those plants’ and flowers’ seeds make next year’s plants and flowers. If you pick them, the plants and flowers go away. Plus, wild plants don’t transplant well and wildflowers are very short-lived as cut flowers. Plant seedlings from the nursery instead. Cut their flowers for your bouquets.

• Tour your own garden. Appreciate the beauty you’ve created. Take photos, make notes, enjoy. Share your images with other home gardeners in the San Diego Gardener Facebook group, facebook.com/groups/SDGardener/.

Vegetable garden

• April is the best time to start your summer vegetable garden from seed or from seedlings.

• Start your own vegetables, flowers and herbs from seed. Not sure how? Sign up for my Easy Seed Starting Online Course, which runs now through July. Enroll at bit.ly/seedstarting2024.

• Set seedlings outside only when nighttime temperatures have consistently been 50 degrees or higher. Before that, start seeds in containers indoors, in a sunny window. By the time they are big enough to transplant, the air and soil should be the right temperature to support them: peppers, eggplants, tomatillo, basil, okra, etc.

• Root crops should be planted directly into the ground since they don’t transplant well: carrots, beets, radishes, parsnips and so on.

• Start cucumbers, squash, pumpkins and melons in large pots now for transplant in a few weeks, or seed them directly in the ground toward the end of the month.

• There’s time for one more crop of beans, spinach, kale, collards and arugula before temperatures get too high. Plant seeds or seedlings.

• Since our soils have very little organic matter, it’s better to plant vegetables in raised beds. Raised beds are also easier to reach and work in, and they hold moisture better than soil.

• Fill on-ground raised beds with a topsoil mix that’s 40 percent organic matter and 60 percent “dirt,” plus worm castings and organic granular vegetable fertilizer. Line the bottoms with hardware cloth (not chicken wire) to exclude hungry gophers.

• Build your own on-ground raised beds. Watch my videos to see how build a raised bed: tinyurl.com/rsbed.

• Fill free-standing raised beds (on legs) with potting soil plus worm castings and organic granular vegetable fertilizer.

• Consider growing in a Vegepod (tinyurl.com/vegpod), a standalone, prefabricated raised bed system with built-in irrigation. These waist-high beds work amazingly well and are especially good for people who suffer from back or knee issues.

• DO NOT till your garden. Tilling appears to fluff up and soften soil but actually causes the soil to compact. Rototilling also destroys earthworms and the critical beneficial microbes that interact with plant roots to keep them healthy.

• The best irrigation for raised beds is narrow in-line drip, such as Netafim Techline EZ, with emitters spaced every six inches. Shop for Netafim Techline EZ at your local irrigation store.

• Make tomato cages from sheets of concrete reinforcing mesh held together on the short ends with zip ties. Fold the mesh to create a freestanding cylinder, about three feet in diameter — perfect for two tomato plants. These cylinders also support cucumbers, bean plants and other climbing crops. Watch this video to see how: bit.ly/tomatocages.

• Rotate crops. Tomato, pepper, eggplant and tomatillo are all susceptible to the same suite of soil pathogens. When you plant these nightshade plants in the same soil year after year, they produce less and less. Instead, set up garden beds in pairs, plant all nightshades in one of the beds the first year. Move them to the other bed in the second year. Move them to the original bed in the third year and continue that process.

• Looking for varieties that resist root knot nematode or verticillium wilt or early blight? Check the variety descriptions for resistance codes like those listed at reimerseeds.com/DiseaseCodes.aspx.

• Heirloom vs. hybrid: Heirloom vegetables are popular for their flavor, but most are sadly shortlived since they have little to no resistance to common pests and diseases. “Old” hybrids were popular for their production and transportability, as well as their pest and disease resistance, but they often lacked in taste. More-modern hybrids feature the best of all worlds, with better pest and disease resistance, high production and really good flavor. We have so many more options now compared with two or three decades ago!

Flowers 

Enjoy these blooms now. It’s too late to plant them for this year’s bloom, so add them to your nursery shopping list for next fall:

Annuals: nasturtium, flowering sweet peas, native California poppies, breadseed poppies (Papaver somniferum), wild sweet peas (Lathyrus vestitus).

Perennials: Peruvian lilies (Alstroemeria), native monkey flower (Mimulus and Diplacus), many kinds of sages (Salvia), roses, African blue basil, Jerusalem sage (Phlomis frutescens), Mexican tulip poppy (Hunnemannia fumariifolia), South African daisy (Arctotis).

Shrubs: Honey bush (Melianthus major), Baja fairy duster (Calliandra californica), Palmer’s mallow (Abutilon palmeri), pincushion (Leucospermum), Grevilleas, rosemary, native bush poppy (Dendromecon rigida).

Succulents: coral aloe (Aloe striata), prickly pear cactus (Opuntia), yucca.

Bulbs: Cape tulip (Homeria), native blue dicks (Dichelostemma capitatum), baboon flowers (Babiana), bearded iris, forest lily (Veltheimia bracteata), Clivia

Container gardens

• A sunny balcony, patio or porch is the perfect spot to grow smaller, dwarf varieties of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc. in containers.

– Tomatoes: Rosella, Tiny Tim, Super Bush, Stupice, Cherry Litt’l Bites

– Eggplants: Little Prince, Hansel, Gretel

– Peppers: Yummy Belles, Pizza My Heart, Fire and Ice, Goat Horn

• Unglazed terra cotta is the best choice for vegetables, but if black plastic nursery cans are your only choice, drape them in light colored fabric so the intense sunlight doesn’t heat the pot, drive off the moisture and cook the roots.

Match the pot to the plants:

• A 15-gallon black nursery pot has room for ONE tomato plant or TWO pepper plants or eggplant plants or basil plants.

• A half whiskey barrel or wine barrel has room for two tomatoes or three peppers, or three eggplant plants, or three basil plants. Alternatively, plant three cucumber plants or one squash plant or five cilantro plants.

• Geotextile fabric pots are easy to use but dry out superfast in our climate. In summer, water daily to keep the soil moist so plants don’t wilt.

• Whatever pot you use, fill it with high quality potting mix. Don’t skimp on the growing medium.

Fruit trees

• Plant subtropical fruit trees now: citrus, avocado, guava, banana, papaya (along the coast only), jaboticaba, mango, coffee, etc. Group these thirsty plants together so they can be watered well without overwatering the rest of the garden.

• Remove fruits from newly planted nectarines, plums and other deciduous fruit trees so they put their energy into strong roots and leaves instead. Those roots and leaves will support future crops.

• Thin marble-size fruits on mature stone fruit, apple and pear trees. Too many fruits on a branch make for small fruits overall. For larger fruits, thin to just one fruit along every four to six inches of branch. Compost the thinned fruits.

• Feed stone fruits, apples and other deciduous fruit trees with organic fruit tree fertilizer. Feed citrus and avocado with organic citrus and avocado food. Always follow label directions.

Maintaining

• Monitor soil moisture. After all the winter rains, the soil should hold water for a long time, especially if you’ve properly mulched. Check the soil moisture — it should be damp as deep as you can stick your finger into the soil. You may not have to start watering until next month.

• Turn over potted bromeliads and shake out the standing water in their “tanks.” Turn back upright and sprinkle Mosquito Bits granules into the center when you refill it. Mosquito Bits contain the biological pesticide Bt, which kills worms, caterpillars (so be careful with it around pollinator plants) and mosquito larvae.

• Weed, weed, weed. Use a Cobrahead hoe or hand pull weeds by the root. Don’t bother spraying. By time sprayed weeds die, they will have flowered and released seeds that will sprout next year. And besides, sprays aren’t good for the environment.

• A thick, coarse, woody mulch over garden beds keeps dormant weed seeds from sprouting.

• Better to use coarse, aged wood mulch than fresh chips. Fresh chips may come from borer-infested trees. When you bring those onto your property, the deadly borers can infest and kill your trees, too.

• Get a head start on heading off mosquitoes. Empty all bowls, dishes, buckets and anything else that holds standing water. Decommission old fountains and plant them with succulents instead.

Sterman is a garden designer, journalist and the host of “A Growing Passion” on public television. She runs Nan Sterman’s Garden School at waterwisegardener.com.