Greetings, Lakeway gardeners! Will April showers bring May flowers? Only time and a few heavy rainstorms will tell. April is a wonderful month to be in the Lakeway garden with your hands in the dirt. The danger of frost should have passed (the average last frost day for the Lakeway area can range all the way to April 10th), but be prepared in case of a surprise late freeze. April is the time of year that all warm season plants can be seeded or transplanted. It’s also the official start of regular lawn mowing and irrigation. Flowers, pollinators, hummingbirds, trees and many spring vegetables flourish this month too. The delicate purple wildflower with the strangest name, “Spiderwort” (Tradescantia ohiensis), is always glorious in my garden this time of year.

This month we are excited to kick off the spring season with our first ever Lakeway Garden Club Open House to celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd from 12-2pm at the Lake Travis Community Library (more details below). Beyond the Open House celebration, in this newsletter we have a bounty of garden tips for your April gardening to-do list. You can also visit the Lakeway Garden Club for more spring garden tips and tricks. Our newly launched Events Calendar showcases many local and online classes and special events happening this spring. We are also forming a Garden Outreach committee for volunteers to help out in local community gardens. If you are interested, let us know. And as always, happy gardening!

You’re Invited to the 2023 LGC Open House!

We are excited to announce the first Lakeway Garden Club Open House Celebration on Earth Day (Saturday, April 22, 2023) from 12-2pm at the Lake Travis Community Library (map). Feel free to stop by, enjoy some refreshments, meet fellow gardeners and learn about gardening in our area. LGC Members and the general public are welcome to attend this free, family friendly event. We will be discussing gardening in our area including native plants, vegetable gardening, deer resistant flowers, container gardens, water wise planting etc. Lakeway Garden Club membership applications will be available and we will have a fun Earth Day activity for kids to enjoy too. We hope to see you there!

If you would like to volunteer or help for this event, just RSVP and let us know. See you there!

April Garden Tips

Flowers to Plant

• Alyssum
• Aster
• Begonia
• Calendula
• Celosia
• Cleome
• Coleus
• Coreopsis
• Cosmos
• Dusty Miller
• Flowering Balsam
• Garden Balsam
• Gomphrena
• Hamelia

  

• Impatiens
• Jacobinia
• Lantana
• Marigold
• Mexican Heather
• Nasturtium
• Nicotiana
• Pentas
• Periwinkle
• Petunia
• Purslane/Portulaca
• Salvia
• Verbena
• Zinnias

Seeds to Sow

• Beans – pole, snap, lima
• Beets
• Cantaloupe
• Corn
• Cucumber
• Greens – warm season
• Peas – southern
• Pumpkins
• Squash – summer, winter
• Watermelon

Things to Transplant

• Eggplant
• Peppers
• Sweet Potatoes
• Tomatoes

Things to Sow or Transplant

• Swiss Chard

April Garden To-Dos

Let’s Grow

As we head into warm to hot temperatures and leave the prospect of frost damage behind, remember to review the Veggie Planting Calendar to plan your spring veggie garden. This Texas AgriLife Extension Vegetable Garden Planting Guide will show you all the ideal times to plant in order to maximize your garden bounty. You can download a printable PDF of the calendar to post by your garden or bring with you to your favorite plant nursery. Seed remaining warm-season vegetables like okra, set out sweet potato slips late in the month. Plant warm season bulbs like caladiums and fall bloomers like oxblood lilies. Plant summer annuals and set out hanging baskets. Move container plants outdoors but monitor for late frost.

Focus on your lawn

Be sure to leave grass clippings on the lawn to maintain soil organic matter. Central Texas lawns need to be fed twice a year, once in spring after the lawn has been mown twice; and fertilize again in the fall.  There are many good, organic options on the market – look for a solid, slow-release fertilizer with an N-P-K formulation that has a higher amount of nitrogen (N), which is the nutrient that encourages green, leafy development in plants.  If you haven’t aerated your lawn within the past 3 to 5 years, then do it this spring.  Top dress with compost before or after aerating for maximum benefit. Plant turfgrass seed to cover bare patches or create new lawns. Begin regular lawn care.

Be water wise

Begin regular water schedule if spring rains have not arrived. Monitor new seedbeds and transplants and water them as needed.

Feed your plants

April is a great month to fertilize established trees, shrubs, and other plants for spring. Spray the landscape with seaweed solution in the morning or evening up to once a week. Also use seaweed solution to water in new transplants to help relieve transplant shock and stimulate rooting.

In the vegetable garden

You can still plant eggplant and pepper transplants this month. Extend your bush bean harvests by planting a short row of seeds a week or two apart. Fertilize corn when it is one to two feet tall, and hill some soil around the corn stalk base to help anchor them. Harvest the last of your winter vegetables so that you can transition into warm-season plants. Sweet potatoes can be planted any time in April or May. Look for slips at local nurseries, from online sources, or sprout your own. Fertilize tomatoes with a water-soluble fertilizer every 2-3 weeks to encourage vigorous growth.

Feed your soil

It’s important to feed your plants, but also, to feed your soil! Using a liquid soil activator is a great way to improve microbial activity and soil structure. If you haven’t done so yet, top dress your lawn, flower beds, and gardens with compost. Mix in compost to the top layers of vegetable, flower, and ornamental beds. Apply a three to four inch layer of mulch to deter weeds, hold moisture and moderate soil temperature as summer approaches.

Pull or treat weeds before they seed

Cover bare soil! For the health of your soil, and to prevent weeds, keep your soil covered at all times with plants or compost and mulch. Bare soil invites weeds. Consider planting summer cover crops, such as buckwheat or black-eyed peas, in fallow areas. Add compost, then mulch, to other bare soil areas. An inch or two of compost, and two or three inches of mulch is needed to get the benefits of weed suppression and moisture retention. Other benefits include cooler, looser, more fertile soil. Keep up with weeding and don’t let them go to seed. Reducing the seed bank at this time will help control weeds for the rest of the year.

Stay on top of flowers, bulbs and perennials

Spring bulbs will rapidly fade in the heat. Allow their foliage to completely die before lifting or cutting back. Cut back leggy herbs and perennials, deadhead flowers. Prune flowering trees, shrubs, and roses when they have completed blooming.

Combat caterpillars

Caterpillars will be out in full force this month, many of whom become beautiful butterflies. Treat only those plants that are not larval hosts to our native pollinators. You can see a list of Austin butterfly plants here.

There are little caterpillars that dangle in great numbers from the oak trees each spring. To save our oaks and plants from defoliation, B.t. or Bacillus thuringensis is a natural solution for caterpillars only. The goal in organic pest control is to be as specific as possible, and only target the culprit pests to leave the beneficial insects to do their work. Apply according to package directions to the leaves of your oak trees and the underlying plants. When the caterpillars take a bite, they’ll start to get sick. B.t. works on all caterpillars (keep it away from your butterfly garden!) including the Genista which feed on the Texas mountain laurel, and tomato hornworms. If you want to avoid the spraying altogether next year, mark your calendar to release Trichogramma wasps in January or February. These tiny, non-stinging wasps parasitize the eggs of these caterpillars as well as several other pests.

Monitor your plants for insects

Aphids, white flies, and spider mites may also start to appear in greater numbers. Control them with regular water blasts to the undersides of leaves. Aphids, thrips, whiteflies, stink bugs, and their ilk are best controlled early on, when they’re nymphs or larvae, using the least toxic solution. Correct identification of the bug is the first step! Harlequin bugs will appear on cole crops as the temperatures warm. Rather than spraying, pull up and compost the plants since they are at the end of their harvesting season. Sooty mold, black spot, and powdery mildew may also start to appear. Consult the Grow Green FAQ sheets for least toxic solutions. Watch out for fire ants, they become more active after a rain.

Watch out for final cold snaps

The Hill Country gets freezes as late as Easter some years, so stay prepared!

Remember to take little steps each day

Every gardener knows that it is easy to let the garden to-dos take over. Stay one step ahead by walking around your yard each morning and doing a few chores each time. It is a great way to get fresh air, exercise and enjoy the spring weather before it becomes relentlessly hot! Prune spring blooming shrubs when blooms have faded. Deadhead flowers as needed. Train vines as they emerge. Don’t let weeds go to seed, pull or chop before they start to flower! These small actions will pay off in the long run!

Garden Tips courtesy of The Natural Gardener and Texas AgriLife Extension.

Interested in Garden Outreach?

If you are a Lakeway Garden Club member and would like to help out by volunteering in local gardens, please let us know of your interest. We are forming a committee for Garden Outreach Projects since we often have requests from local community groups and schools for gardening advice, expertise and manual labor. If you are interested, please let us know. There is an opportunity to start as early as Monday April 3rd at the Lakeway MUD office. Please email info@lakewaygardenclub.com if interested in Monday’s outreach event.