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First Week of April |
• Depending on the amount of rain or snow, continue ‘Winter
Watering’
• Cut back herbaceous shrubs such as Butterfly Bushes, Blue
Mist and Dark Knight Spireas and Russian Sage to about four to six
inches
• If you have not already pruned summer flowering trees and
shrubs, do it now. Wait until after flowering to prune spring blooming
trees and shrubs such as Crabapples, Cherry and Plum trees, Lilacs
and Forsythia
• Do not prune Maples now because they will bleed, wait until
late summer to early fall
• Apply a pre-emergent herbicide on the lawn. If you have not
aerated your lawn, do it now
• Now is also a good time to overseed thin spots in your lawn
or spread new seed
• If you did not apply Bayer™ Tree & Shrub systemic
insecticide to ‘at risk’ plants last Labor Day, do it
now
• Add compost to vegetable and flowerbeds. Prepare the areas
for cool season vegetables and spring bulbs
• Spring flowering bulbs such as tulips and daffodils will be
putting on a show this month, take note of the display and makes notes
of where to add bulbs next fall
• Check the mulch around trees and shrubs, leave one to three
inches of open space around the trunk(s) and replenish mulch to about
two to four inches deep to help stabilize soil temperatures and conserve
moisture
• Feed the birds, there is not much natural food as yet, you
can start putting out humming bird feeder to catch the spring migration
but remember to bring them in on freezing nights
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Second Week of April |
• Depending on the amount of rain or snow, continue ‘Winter
Watering’
• We can still get snow this month, shake accumulation of heavy
snow off the branches of threes and shrubs
• Remove Tree wrap. The rule of thumb is ‘put it on for
Thanksgiving Day and take it off for Easter’
• Seed or overseed wild flower beds, this may be combined with
seeding or overseeding grasses in non-turf areas
• Plant dormant, containerized trees, shrubs and hardy perennials
as soon as the ground can be worked, we recommend using root stimulator
and mycorrrhizal soil inoculants
• Plant cool season vegetables such as seed potatoes, bare root
asparagus and onion sets
• Plant dormant Rhubarb and Strawberries.
• Plant seeds for other cool season crops such as broccoli,
cabbage, radishes, spinach and lettuce
• Dormant oil spray can be applied to Aspens to control oyster
shell scale and to Ashes to control leaf rolling aphids
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Third Week of April |
• Friday is Arbor Day, plant a tree
• Colorado native fruit trees such as Chokecherry and American
Plum, both you and the birds can enjoy the fruit
• Depending on the amount of rain or snow, continue ‘Winter
Watering’
• We can still get snow this month, shake accumulation of heavy
snow off the branches of threes and shrub
• Fertilize deciduous trees and shrubs. A slow release granular
fertilizer is preferred
• Plant dormant, containerized apple, cherry, plum and pear
trees
• In order to get the largest onion bulbs plant onion seeds
now
• This is the month when weeds will start popping up over night,
hoe of pull new weeds from untreated beds
• We can still get snow this month, shake accumulation of heavy
snow off the branches of threes and shrubs
• Plant Spring bulbs such as gladiolus, anemone, lilies and
peony roots
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Fourth Week of April |
• Depending on the weather, it may time to increase the watering
of trees, shrubs and perennials
• Cut back the cool season Ornamental Grasses, such as Karl
Foerster, to about four to six inches
• If you did not use a pre-emergent herbicide earlier, use a
fertilizer-weed killer product to take care of early spring weeds
such as Dandelions
• If Fire Blight is prevalent in your neighborhood, spray ‘at
risk’ plants with streptomycin every three to four days during
blooming. Pears and Apples (Crabapples) have the highest risk of contracting
Fire Blight but certain varieties are more resistant
• If the weather is extra warm, keep an eye out for early aphid
infestation
• Start warm season vegetable seeds such as watermelon, cantaloupe,
squash, and pumpkin
• Plant dormant containerized Ornamental Grasses |
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