April Gardening Tips for Central Texas:
• 
Thin the fruit on your peaches (4-6″ apart) to encourage larger fruit. Thin apples and pears to one per cluster.
• Plant the following veggies now
: Lima Beans, Snap Beans, Beets, Black Eyed Peas, Sweet Corn, Cantaloupe, Chard, Cucumber, Eggplant, Okra, Pepper Plants, Radishes, New Zealand Spinach, Summer Squash, Tomato Plants, Watermelon. Select the best varieties
• Spray your roses with neem oil to prevent black spot and powdery mildew.
• Blast the aphids away with a heavy water spray! Keep the slugs clear with a jar lid of beer! (bury it to ground level and the slugs and snails will just jump in – too easy!)
• 
Release beneficial insects – like ladybugs, green lacewings and other garden helpers! Earthworms, too!
• Before you plant your seed, try soaking them in a solution of Maxicrop Seaweed – they will sprout much faster!
• Check your sprinkler system now before it gets hot!
• Remove the excess mulch from your tropicals (gingers, jasmines, Rangoon creeper etc.) and feed them with Bioform!
• Remove old blackberry canes and pinch back new canes to encourage branching. Water and fertilize throughout the summer.
• Seed Bermuda grass and water several times each day very lightly to keep the seed moist until established.
• Prune spring-flowering shrubs after blooming like flowering quince, azaleas, Indian Hawthorne, etc. Go ahead and fertilize them at the same time.
• 
Plant your caladiums bulbs toward the end of the month.
• Continue to plant your beds with annuals, copper plants, daylilies, perennials, and heat tolerant tropicals like mandevilla, bougainvillea, hibiscus and crossandra to get them established before summer heat arrives..
• Divide and transplant late summer and fall-flowering bulbs.
• Fertilize tomatoes and pepper plants now with tomatoes and pepper food. Feed crape myrtles beneath the branch spread with a slow release, organic fertilizer. Fertilize house plants.
• 
Mulch trees, shrubs, veggie and flower beds with 2-4 inches of mulch. Spread coffee grounds around azaleas and other acid loving plants.
Source: http://www.gonursery.com/pages/32 and http://www.klru.org/ctg/tips/april.php and http://www.minifarmbox.com/tag/ten-great-tips-to-give-you-bumper-crop-tomatoes/
Native and Adapted Landscape Plants for Central Texas – Downloadable Plant Guide: http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Watershed/growgreen/plantguide.pdf
Courtesy of Kathy Kares www.AHealthyHome.net CONTACT ME
KathyKares 