GARDEN WORK IN APRIL 
By Ernest Hemming 
A PRIL is the busiest month of all the year in the 
garden. Hitherto the gardener had to set his 
own pace, which made the work not altogether in¬ 
teresting except to the enthusiast and professional. 
This month, however, Nature sets the pace, every¬ 
thing is bursting into life, one can almost fancy he 
hears the activity of the myriad cells of plant life and 
the bursting of the buds under the influence of the 
sun and warm rains. It behooves the gardener to 
hurry or the appointed time to sow will be missed. 
Work with Nature and you have a generous partner, 
work against her or not within her laws and you will 
have to carry the biggest load yourself. 
1 his month the lawn gets its first mowing, be¬ 
fore this is done a good rolling will be very bene¬ 
ficial. Jt will remove all the small inequalities and 
give that smooth surface so necessary to good ap¬ 
pearance. It is useless to roll if the ground is at all 
dry, after a rain while the ground is moist is when it 
does the most good. After the first mowing trim all 
the edges along the roadways and around the flower 
beds, as nothing will detract more from the general 
appearance of the place than ragged and crooked 
edges to the turf. 
I he hardy perennial border should now begin 
to look interesting, each day some well known, 
long remembered, plant will burst into bloom, for¬ 
get-me-nots, leopard’s bane, bleeding hearts, Iris 
pumila, English primroses and cowslips, English 
daisies, daffodils, moss pinks, lily-of-the-valley, vio¬ 
lets and such like are due to bloom this month. Even 
the tardy fall blooming plants will have made their 
appearance above ground, so that their positions 
will be clearly defined. Now is the time to add to 
the collection and decide on those spaces in which to 
plant gladioli, dahlias and annuals. Gladioli 
bulbs should be planted at intervals through 
the spring months so as to insure a succession. 
Plant the bulbs about three inches below the surface 
and mark the position with a neat stake. It will be 
there when needed to support them. This is very 
necessary with dahlias as they grow very quickly and 
soon get top heavy and liable to be broken by the 
wind, if not constantly tied up. 
Dahlias should not be planted until all danger of 
frost is past as they are very susceptible to cold. 
I he latter end of the month or in early May be¬ 
ing quite time enough. 
1 be proper time to sow annual Hower seeds is 
best decided by the condition of the ground. When 
it crumbles easily and yet is not too dry. Most seeds 
are very fine and there is always a danger of cover¬ 
ing them too deep. In most cases it is not necessary 
to cover at all, rake the ground Hne, sprinkle the seed 
and firm down with the back of the spade, then sprin¬ 
kle with a fine spray. The following is a good selec¬ 
tion of annuals to sow in positions where they may 
be allowed to Hower without being transplanted. 
Shirley poppies, Phlox Drummondi , sweet alyssum, 
nasturtium, Dianthus Chinensis, Eschscholtzia Cal¬ 
endula, calliopsis, Chrysanthemum coronarium, por- 
tulacca, Salpiglossis, and annual larkspurs. 
The shrubbery borders will soon be at their best 
as by far the great majority of them hloom in the 
spring. The golden bell, English dogwood, pussy 
willow and Pyrus Japomca are among the first to 
bloom but are soon followed by a host of others. If 
they received attention as advised in March little 
more will be necessary except to enjoy them, and a 
good thing too, for the vegetable garden requires 
every moment of time. If there are good strong 
roots of pie plant growing in the garden, knock the 
end out of barrels and put over them, packing stable 
manure around the outside, this will give long tender 
stalks two or three weeks sooner than that not simi¬ 
larly treated, l ake off the covering of the strawberry 
beds if they have been too heavily mulched. The 
clusters of blossoms will very soon appear. After 
hoeing and cleaning up the beds, it is a good plan to 
spread the lawn grass cut by the machine around the 
strawberry plants, it keeps the ground cool in dry 
weather and the fruit from coming in contact with 
the earth and being splashed with heavy rains. 
The vegetable garden should now be manured 
and dug or ploughed as soon as possible. Manure 
enters largely into gardening operations for this 
month, and should receive the consideration it 
deserves. Those having a good supply available 
are fortunate, for with judicious use the crops will be 
correspondingly large. Although there are quite a 
number of good artificial fertilizers on the market, the 
best all-round manure for the garden is that from the 
cow barns, next comes stable manure. 1 hey both 
add humus to the soil as well as plant foods. Both 
should be well rotted and incorporated with the soil. 
There is a prevailing impression that leaf mould 
from the woods is rich, but it is the poorest kind of 
soil for vegetables and the majority of flowers and 
not to be compared with good loam from the open 
fields. Lime can be used to an advantage in most 
old gardens, but it has a tendency to impoverish 
the soil, its properties being to make plant foods that 
are already in the soil available rather than add 
anything to it. 
Ehe early crops that were planted last month 
should be hoed just as soon as the rows can be dis- 
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