What are the April garden chores you can accomplish in the north? This list will help guide you to keeping up with your vegetable gardens and flower beds, as well as lawns and general tasks.
Hopefully by April, most of us are experiencing at least some spring weather. Here in the Pacific Northwest, there’s always a chance of a hail storm or even frosting mornings, but for the most part, spring is here, flowers are blooming, and the vegetable garden needs planting.
April 15th is the last frost date for our area, so lots of cool-weather crops can be planted out in the vegetable garden. (TIP: knowing your last frost date is key to planting the right plants at the right times – if you don’t know yours, go here to find it.)
The next three months are probably the busiest for gardeners – we’re trying to catch all the weeds before they get big (and make our lives harder come July and August), get things mulched, plant new shrubs, plants, and edibles, and generally run around like chickens with our heads cut off, ha!
Hopefully this list will help us all take on a slower pace for the chores needed in April. Remember, just pick the priorities for your space, crossing off all the tasks that don’t apply to you.
Want all my best vegetable gardening tips and techniques to keep it simple and manageable? (Yes, it CAN be done!) Then grab my ebook, Vegetable Gardening The Easy Way, and you’ll be on your way to growing your own food without all the backbreaking work.
Garden Chores by Month for April
Vegetable & Fruit Garden:
- Prep main garden beds for spring & summer planting by weeding and turning in organic material.
- Harden off cool-weather seedlings started indoors (cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, etc.).
- Plant starts of broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, leeks, & lettuce.
- Plant seeds of carrots, endive, lettuce, peas, radishes, spinach, turnips, rutabagas.
- Use floating row covers to help protect beets, cabbage family & carrots from insects like leaf miners and cabbage maggots. (I’ve also found that row covers provide just enough more warmth to allow bigger growth than uncovered vegetables).
- Apply organic fertilizer to cane, bush (blueberries, currants, gooseberries) & trailing berries.
- Mulch perennial vegetables and fruits like asparagus, rhubarb & strawberries with compost or composted manure.
- Feed fruit trees, apply whatever you feel comfortable with to control maggots, etc.
Flower Beds:
- Prune & shape spring-blooming shrubs and trees after blossoms fade.
- Plant summer blooming tubers like dahlias and gladiolus (if didn’t get to it in March)
- Deadhead flowers as they finish blooming.
- Divide perennials that need it (TIP: if your daylilies aren’t blooming as much anymore, they need to be divided)
- Continue laying newspaper and mulching your garden beds as you clear them of weeds – you will never be sorry you bit the bullet and spent the time doing this now, trust me on this.
- Apply organic fertilizer to established shrubs, as needed. (TIP: I don’t add anything more than the compost topping – it feeds the soil as it breaks down slowly – yay for one thing to check off the list as not needed, right?)
- Plant shrubs and evergreens.
Other:
- Fertilize lawns so spring rains can water it into the ground.
- Mow, mow, mow…sigh.
- Edge beds & paths as needed.
- Refresh paths as needed with bark, gravel, etc.
- Bait for slugs (in the PNW, this is probably #1 on our lists!)
- Keep caring for warm weather seedlings indoors: feed a half-strength solution of organic fertilizer or fish emulsion, keep well watered, and raise the light source as they grow. Re-pot as needed to larger pots.
TIP: You can find all my seed-starting tips and tricks in this series-
- Vegetable Garden 101: How to Start Plants from Seeds
- Vegetable Garden 101: Caring For Seedlings at Week 1
- Vegetable Garden 101: Caring for Seedlings at Week 6
Note: This February garden chores list is not comprehensive by any means, but meant to provide a jumping-off point to organizing your garden chores. Feel free to print the list and add any of your own specific chores to the sections.
You can see all the month-by-month garden chores lists here.
Need more easy gardening tips?
- Organic Vegetable Gardening 101
- How to Plant a Garden the Easy Care Way
- 5 Steps to Take Now For Your Best Garden Ever (with Free Printables!)
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Marcella says
Hi Jami, Thanks so much for your blog. Especially since you are in Oregon. Thank heavens I just put my covers on my plants yesterday because we had lots of hail here on the coast.
Jami says
Good for you Marcella! We had a bunch, too, and morning temps in the 30s this week!! Yikes – warm can come any time now. 🙂
Myra Corbin says
Great post! Found some good ideas and also great reminders on my garden chores for next month. Your post will be of a great help for my sister too, so I’m surely recommending it to her. Thank you for sharing all this nice information!
Jami says
So glad you found it helpful, Myra!
OakAndQuail says
Totally late to the party, but glad I discovered your blog. The monthly chore lists are perfect reminders for what needs to be done. Thanks for all you’ve done here!
Fran says
Oh what a beautiful day here in Oregon. I have been outside pulling those nasty winter weeds and walking the dogs. Can’t wait to plant come flowers and vegetables. Got my raised beds cleared out and just need to turn it. Bummed about the rain that’s coming, but it is spring in Oregon 🙂
Enjoy the wonderful weather while it’s here.
Jami says
So true, Fran!! Just a fabulous time of year – and the rain seems to be just a little on one day in a week of sun/clouds mix, so it’s all good I think. Just enough to water the newly planted seedlings. 😉
[email protected] says
Great list! I really need to keep a list like this for us. I’m kind of fly by the seat of my pants kind of gardener – just doing what I see needs to be done. But I’m getting better.
Nancy says
Oh Jami I envy you!! This is more like a May or even June list this year since we’re still getting snow here as recent at this past weekend, (although no accumulation luckily)!! This winter has been particularly hard as it’s been so cold and lots of snow just to make winter extra long. Hints of Spring are finally here with some sunshine and temperatures that are more seasonal; I can’t wait until it starts to “look” more like Spring and we can see some of those blooms you are lucky enough to see already! Thanks so much for the helpful tips which still apply even though our gardening zones are different. Here we are 5b so our last frost date is about 2 months away but like you said there is still a lot that can be before then. Looking forward to your next post! Have a great week! 😀