Friendship Gardens - To Do's - Monthly gardening activities

Indoor Plants and Activities:

Many indoor plants can be moved to shady locations outdoors, but only after danger of frost is past. Plants will dry out more often outdoors, so keep a close eye on soil moisture. Sinking the pots in soil will help slow down moisture loss.

Now is a good time to take cuttings of houseplants to increase a collection or share with friends. Root cuttings in media such as vermiculite, perlite or potting soil. Roots grown in water tend to be weak from lack of oxygen and do not adjust well to planting in soil.

Fertilize house plants according to label directions. Foliage plants require relatively high nitrogen fertilizer; flowering houseplants respond best to fertilizer high in phosphorus.

Lawns, Woody Ornamentals and Fruits:

Prune early spring-flowering trees and shrubs after flowers fade.

Plant balled and burlapped or container nursery stock, and water thoroughly.

Remove and destroy overwintering bagworms from landscape trees and shrubs.

Follow a spray schedule to keep home orchard crops pest free. While trees are in bloom, use fungicide sprays without insecticide to avoid injury to bees. Follow label directions.

Thin fruits of apple trees, if needed, about three weeks after petal fall. Apples should be about 8 inches apart.

Apply fungicides to roses to control diseases such as black spot.

Apply herbicide to control broadleaf weeds in the lawn if they are a problem, but be cautious around garden plants to prevent spray drift. Never spray on a windy day.

Purdue turf experts recommend that if you are going to fertilize your lawn in May, apply three-fourths to 1 pound N/1000 square feet with a product that contains 50 percent or more slow-release fertilizer. Try to schedule the application prior to a rain or irrigate following application to move the fertilizer off the leaf blade.

Flowers, vegetables and small fruits:

Plant frost-tender plants after danger of frost is past for your area. This includes warm-season vegetables, such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and vine crops, as well as most annual flowers and tender perennials, such as cannas, gladiolus, dahlias, tuberous begonias and caladiums.

Pinch chrysanthemums and annual flower plants to keep them compact and well-branched.

Make successive plantings of beans and sweet corn to extend the season of harvest.

Thin seedlings of early-planted crops such as carrots, lettuce, spinach and beets, to their proper spacing.

Harvest early plantings of radishes, spinach and lettuce.

Harvest asparagus by cutting or snapping spears at or just below soil level.

Control cucumber beetles, carriers of bacterial wilt, as soon as cucumber plants germinate or are transplanted to prevent disease.

Harvest rhubarb by cutting, or grasp the stalk and pull it up and slightly to one side.

Remove blossoms from newly set strawberry plants to allow better runner formation.

Remove unwanted sucker growth in raspberries when new shoots are about a foot tall.

-- from Plants & Pests, Purdue University