Courtesy Meredith Seaver, USU Extension

It’s that time of year again when landscapes get busy! Gardeners are seeing more and more things in the landscape that need their attention, and they’re hoping they can get it all done. We don’t mean to add to your to-do list, but here is a list of some common April timely tips, just in case you’re worried you might forget to do something important.

Pepper seeds should be started right away if you’re growing your own transplants (they can be started as early as mid-March for mid-May planting out in the garden). Your tomato and basil seeds germinate a little faster than peppers, so start them at the beginning of April to have them ready to go out into the garden in mid-May.

If you plan to use a preemergent herbicide on your lawn but you also want to aerate, make sure you do the aeration first and then apply the herbicide when you see neighborhood forsythia shrubs blooming. Time is short, so don’t delay on this one!

Bare root trees and shrubs should be planted while they are still dormant for the best chance of survival.

There is still a little time to divide and transplant fall-blooming perennials.

Courtesy Meredith Seaver, USU Extension

Apply delayed-dormant oil sprays to fruit trees and shade trees when you see the buds begin to swell. You can use either a conventional horticultural oil or a plant-based horticultural oil, but your trees need thorough coverage.

Cool-season flowers such as pansies, primulas, alyssum and violas can be planted in early April.

Squash, cucumbers and melons can be started indoors near the end of April, but they also do just as well if planted directly into the garden in late May.

Early tomatoes can be transplanted into the garden in late April if they are protected with walls-of-water, cloches or other chill and frost protection.

Late April is the time to plant summer flowering bulbs such as gladiolus and dahlias.

Courtesy Meredith Seaver, USU Extension

Lawns can be aerated in late April.

If you haven’t pruned and fertilized your roses yet, get that finished before the end of April.

Check your hoses, repair grow boxes, sharpen your tools and get ready to garden!

Late winter was the best time for pruning your grapevines, but if you haven’t done it yet, get it taken care of as soon as possible. There may be some dripping from the cut ends, but this is harmless.

Late winter through spring is a good time to get chelated iron down into the soil for trees and shrubs that have problems with iron chlorosis.

Be patient and cautious about getting back into the vegetable garden. Working the soil while it is too wet can cause soil compaction and can also make it more difficult to prepare your seed beds for planting.

If the soil is dry enough, you can plant spring crops like spinach, peas, onions, carrots, beets and lettuce beginning in mid-to-late March. Don’t forget to work some compost into the soil before you plant.

Cut back the dried foliage on ornamental grasses that provided some winter interest in your landscape. Also, clean away any dead foliage on perennial plants that were left to die back over the winter so that the new season’s growth will look its best.

Prune spring-flowering shrubs, such as forsythia, once the blossoms have faded.