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Regional Checklist - April/May
GL's regional experts' garden checklists for April/May
##West - Sharon Hanna##
* **Try red-hot lettuces**
Fix snazzy salads with sizzling new organic lettuces such as the crimson-and-cream ‘Red Buttersworth’, Shiraz-coloured ‘Revelation’ (Stellar Seeds) or the heirloom ‘Cardinale’, that looks for all the world like a cabbage rose (West Coast Seeds). Grow them in pots or tuck them among chartreuse/yellow flowers to create a smashing contrast. For tender, crisp leaves, lettuce must grow quickly. Water well and feed regularly. * **Leave bulbs’ leaves**
When naturalized bulbs such as daffodils have finished flowering, avoid tying the foliage in knots or hacking it off. This dying-down process is replenishing the bulb for next year. For clever camouflage, site bulbs between tall- growing perennials. * **Beware of raw mulch**
Don’t go overboard if you’re using organic mulch containing a lot of raw tree clippings and evergreen material. These are still decomposing and will steal nitrogen from your plants in the process. Well-rotted materials are safer to use. * **Think outside the boxwood**
Grow a hedge of butterfly bushes (*Buddleja*). My grandmother’s 1948 gardening book says it can be done, and people do it with forsythia, so I’m trying it. *Sharon Hanna is a writer, seed specialist and director of a school horticulture program in Vancouver (Zone 7).*
##Prairies - Donna Balzer##
* **Sow in succession**
Vegetables such as lettuce and broccoli may be started indoors, under light, in late April. When they are transplanted outdoors in late May, a second crop can be seeded outdoors at the same time. Similarly, seed a crop of carrots the third week of May just after the full moon, and then a second crop in June. * **Peer closely at plants**
Buy a magnifying glass to check for insect eggs on your plants. Typically, eggs are oval, ridged and attached at one end to the leaf. Not all are pests, however. Avoid spraying ladybug eggs, which are bright yellow, or lacewing eggs, which are white and attached by a fine, thin hair. * **Try bamboo in pots**
Containers allow those of us in Zones 2 and 3 to grow unusual plants, such as bamboo. Five-gallon pots of bamboo, planted in late May, will be a delight. We know the plants won’t survive winter but they are worth trying for their summer effect. * **Put out pansies**
Set out pansies as early as mid-April because they tolerate temps as low as 8°C once hardened off. By late May, they will be in full bloom. *Donna Balzer is a garden consultant, author, speaker and radio personality. She lives in Calgary (Zone 3).* ##Central - Mark Cullen## * **Get the perennial “blues”**
Look for the Perennial Plant Association’s plant of the year for 2008, the violet-blue-flowered Geranium ‘Rozanne’. Hardy to Zone 5,it blooms from early summer to fall and, at 15 to 18 inches tall, makes a fine ground cover. * **Enrich your soil**
Before you plant, amend your soil generously with compost. The organic gardener’s mantra says, “feed the soil and the plants will take care of themselves.” They’ll not only thrive but also have fewer pests and diseases. * **Rethink annual plantings**
Change your annual plantings and try some of the showy new varieties of impatiens such as the double ‘Fiesta Ole’, or the whopping ‘Kong’ coleus, with its multi-toned foliage, that grows more than three feet tall in peat-based soil in sun or part shade. * **Sow cool crops**
Sow onions, peas, snow peas, carrots and your first crop of radishes before the last frost. For most of us, that is in mid-to-late April and in northern Ontario and Quebec it’s the first two weeks of May. Brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli and other brassicas perform best when planted as transplants at this same time. *Mark Cullen is an author and radio host on CFRB in Toronto (Zone 6). He also appears weekly on CTV’s* Canada AM*.* ##Atlantic - Carla Allen## * **Make bigger, better baskets**
For the best hanging baskets ever, use containers at least 12 inches in diameter and plant foolproof trailers such as Surfinia petunias (try the new ‘Shockwave’ series), bidens, fan flower or trailing verbena. Blend compost, a quality potting soil, slow-release fertilizer and water-holding crystals for gorgeous, long-lasting, easy-care baskets. * **Get buds on your spuds**
Place your potatoes in a warm, bright area a week or two prior to planting to encourage sprouting. Cut them into wedges, each containing an “eye.” Plant the wedges in loose soil with a little composted manure. Cover emerging shoots with earth to protect them from late frost. * **Help any plants on hold**
Until you can plant them permanently, heel bare-root plants in a temporary furrow in the ground, and consolidate overgrown cell-pack seedlings in a pot so they won’t dry out. * **Fight pests naturally**
Make a natural pest repellent by blending two garlic cloves with two hot peppers and adding the mix to one gallon of water. Use 1/8 cup of this concentrate to two quarts of water for spraying. Also, drape a floating row cover (spun-bond polyester) over carrots and broccoli to keep out carrot fly and cabbage worm. * **Feather friends' nests**
Put out nesting material such as yarn, string, dog hair or dryer lint for garden birds. *Carla Allen is an award-winning reporter/photographer and garden columnist. She lives in Yarmouth, NS (Zone 6).*
Fix snazzy salads with sizzling new organic lettuces such as the crimson-and-cream ‘Red Buttersworth’, Shiraz-coloured ‘Revelation’ (Stellar Seeds) or the heirloom ‘Cardinale’, that looks for all the world like a cabbage rose (West Coast Seeds). Grow them in pots or tuck them among chartreuse/yellow flowers to create a smashing contrast. For tender, crisp leaves, lettuce must grow quickly. Water well and feed regularly. * **Leave bulbs’ leaves**
When naturalized bulbs such as daffodils have finished flowering, avoid tying the foliage in knots or hacking it off. This dying-down process is replenishing the bulb for next year. For clever camouflage, site bulbs between tall- growing perennials. * **Beware of raw mulch**
Don’t go overboard if you’re using organic mulch containing a lot of raw tree clippings and evergreen material. These are still decomposing and will steal nitrogen from your plants in the process. Well-rotted materials are safer to use. * **Think outside the boxwood**
Grow a hedge of butterfly bushes (*Buddleja*). My grandmother’s 1948 gardening book says it can be done, and people do it with forsythia, so I’m trying it. *Sharon Hanna is a writer, seed specialist and director of a school horticulture program in Vancouver (Zone 7).*
(continued below)
Vegetables such as lettuce and broccoli may be started indoors, under light, in late April. When they are transplanted outdoors in late May, a second crop can be seeded outdoors at the same time. Similarly, seed a crop of carrots the third week of May just after the full moon, and then a second crop in June. * **Peer closely at plants**
Buy a magnifying glass to check for insect eggs on your plants. Typically, eggs are oval, ridged and attached at one end to the leaf. Not all are pests, however. Avoid spraying ladybug eggs, which are bright yellow, or lacewing eggs, which are white and attached by a fine, thin hair. * **Try bamboo in pots**
Containers allow those of us in Zones 2 and 3 to grow unusual plants, such as bamboo. Five-gallon pots of bamboo, planted in late May, will be a delight. We know the plants won’t survive winter but they are worth trying for their summer effect. * **Put out pansies**
Set out pansies as early as mid-April because they tolerate temps as low as 8°C once hardened off. By late May, they will be in full bloom. *Donna Balzer is a garden consultant, author, speaker and radio personality. She lives in Calgary (Zone 3).* ##Central - Mark Cullen## * **Get the perennial “blues”**
Look for the Perennial Plant Association’s plant of the year for 2008, the violet-blue-flowered Geranium ‘Rozanne’. Hardy to Zone 5,it blooms from early summer to fall and, at 15 to 18 inches tall, makes a fine ground cover. * **Enrich your soil**
Before you plant, amend your soil generously with compost. The organic gardener’s mantra says, “feed the soil and the plants will take care of themselves.” They’ll not only thrive but also have fewer pests and diseases. * **Rethink annual plantings**
Change your annual plantings and try some of the showy new varieties of impatiens such as the double ‘Fiesta Ole’, or the whopping ‘Kong’ coleus, with its multi-toned foliage, that grows more than three feet tall in peat-based soil in sun or part shade. * **Sow cool crops**
Sow onions, peas, snow peas, carrots and your first crop of radishes before the last frost. For most of us, that is in mid-to-late April and in northern Ontario and Quebec it’s the first two weeks of May. Brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli and other brassicas perform best when planted as transplants at this same time. *Mark Cullen is an author and radio host on CFRB in Toronto (Zone 6). He also appears weekly on CTV’s* Canada AM*.* ##Atlantic - Carla Allen## * **Make bigger, better baskets**
For the best hanging baskets ever, use containers at least 12 inches in diameter and plant foolproof trailers such as Surfinia petunias (try the new ‘Shockwave’ series), bidens, fan flower or trailing verbena. Blend compost, a quality potting soil, slow-release fertilizer and water-holding crystals for gorgeous, long-lasting, easy-care baskets. * **Get buds on your spuds**
Place your potatoes in a warm, bright area a week or two prior to planting to encourage sprouting. Cut them into wedges, each containing an “eye.” Plant the wedges in loose soil with a little composted manure. Cover emerging shoots with earth to protect them from late frost. * **Help any plants on hold**
Until you can plant them permanently, heel bare-root plants in a temporary furrow in the ground, and consolidate overgrown cell-pack seedlings in a pot so they won’t dry out. * **Fight pests naturally**
Make a natural pest repellent by blending two garlic cloves with two hot peppers and adding the mix to one gallon of water. Use 1/8 cup of this concentrate to two quarts of water for spraying. Also, drape a floating row cover (spun-bond polyester) over carrots and broccoli to keep out carrot fly and cabbage worm. * **Feather friends' nests**
Put out nesting material such as yarn, string, dog hair or dryer lint for garden birds. *Carla Allen is an award-winning reporter/photographer and garden columnist. She lives in Yarmouth, NS (Zone 6).*
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