Dig beds, plant
April is one of the year's best months to plant. Trees, shrubs, evergreens, perennial flowers, and roses can all go in the ground this month - pretty much everything except tropicals, annual flowers, and frost-wimpy vegetables (tomatoes, melons, peppers, cucumbers, beans, squash, okra, eggplant, corn, and sweet potatoes).
Frost-tolerant plants appreciate the lengthening days, warming soil, and usually regular rain of April.
April planting also gives roots weeks to acclimate before the first main challenge of a hot, dry summer.
If you're lucky enough to have decent native soil or have moved into a yard where an avid gardener lived before, just loosen the soil and plant.
However, if you have the compacted clay, hard shale, and/or subsoil topped with a few inches of lousy "topsoil" that's common in heavily graded subdivisions, consider improving what you have before planting. Here's how:
1.) Two or three weeks before digging, test the soil to see if you need to adjust its acidity level (pH) or add any nutrients. Do-it-yourself kits are available for $9-$10 from most garden centers, county Penn State Extension offices or online at Penn State's soil test lab.
2.) Use a digging fork, shovel or tiller to loosen the existing "soil" to a depth of 10 or 12 inches.
3.) Rake about two inches of organic matter over that and work it in well so you end up with a loose, "fluffy" blend that's slightly raised a few inches above grade. Compost, decayed leaves, decayed horse or cow manure, mushroom soil, and peat moss are examples of organic matter. Dig or till it two or three times so it's mixed, not layered.
4.) Rake smooth, and you're ready to plant.
Before digging anything anywhere, know what's buried underneath. You shouldn't hit any major utility lines if you're staying in the top foot (supply lines are supposed to be deeper), but you may well hit cable-TV lines, Internet lines, electric lines to outdoor lights, and irrigation lines.
To be on the safe side, have public utilities marked ahead of time by calling the Pennsylvania One Call system at 811.
This is especially important if you're using rototillers or other power equipment. Contractors using power equipment are required to make this call.
The marking service is free for homeowners working on their own properties.
To contact Pennsylvania One Call, dial 811 or toll-free 800-242-1776 at least three business days ahead of digging time.
April is also an excellent month to move plants that you've realized are in the wrong place.
That can happen because you guessed wrong on a suitable spot, because the growing site has changed (i.e. nearby trees have grown or been cut down), or simply because you changed your mind.
As with planting, transplanting now makes sense for most plants because they'll have several weeks of warm, damp growing before they hit potential heat and drought.
You'll be disturbing and damaging roots in any transplant, so this kind of garden "editing" is a stress that requires some reacclimating after the move. Treat any transplanted plant as you would a new plant when it comes to watering.
The good news is that most plants move to new locations better than you think. If you're moving a plant from an unsuitable spot to an ideal one, you'll usually end up with a healthier plant in the long run.
Some ways to maximize your success odds:
1.) The sooner you make a needed move, the better. Smaller and recently planted plants move a lot better than big ones with well established roots.
2.) Timing is important. Transplanting in spring (from late March through early May) or in early fall (between Labor Day and end of October) is less stressful on plants than moving them in the heat of summer or in winter when roots can't penetrate the frozen ground.
Transplanting early in the morning or early in the evening (or on a cloudy day) is also better than transplanting in the middle of a hot, sunny day.
3.) Get as big of a root ball as you can handle to minimize root damage. Then wrap the ball in a tarp or burlap so soil doesn't fall off - tearing roots along with it - during the relocation.
4.) Get the plant in the new location as soon as possible, and plant it at the same depth as before (assuming the plant was planted at the correct level in the original spot).
5.) Keep the plant well watered after the move. The goal is to keep the soil around and just below the root ball damp at all times.
For trees and shrubs, deep soakings once or twice a week are better than light waterings that dampen only the soil surface and not deeper where the roots are.
If the soil is dry, give your to-be-moved plants a good soaking a day before the move.
Seeding the lawn
And while you're out there digging and lugging plants, remember that April also is an excellent month to plant grass seed.
Whether you're trying to thicken a thin lawn, patch bare spots, or start a new lawn, here's how:
1.) Prepare the area. Remove weeds, dead turf, fallen leaves and any other debris so you'll be able to bring seed into contact with the soil. Pull larger weeds, and spray creeping patches with an herbicide. Read the herbicide label to determine how long you'll have to wait before planting new grass seed. Then cut the lawn short - to about one-half to one inch.
2.) Loosen the soil. Grass seed won't sprout well if you just toss it on top of compacted soil. Rough up the soil surface with a stiff-tined garden rake or claw-type cultivar. For large areas, consider renting a power tool, such as a dethatcher that roughs up the soil surface with fine tines, or a slit-seeder, which is a machine that cuts slices in the turf and deposits seed into them.
3.) Go with good seed. Different grass species perform better in some areas than others, and even within each species, some varieties perform better than others.
Also, check labels to see how much grass seed really is in each bag compared to fertilizer and inexpensive mulch. You might be surprised to find that you're paying mostly for mulch, not seed, in some bags.
4.) Plant the seed. Scatter seed by hand in small areas or use a broadcast spreader over large ones. The goal is to distribute seed evenly and moderately - approximately 16 seeds per square inch.
Then lightly rake so that the seed is distributed within the top quarter-inch of the loosened soil. Lightly tamp the soil to enhance seed-to-soil contact.
5.) Cover newly planted areas with a light layer of straw or floating row cover, a light-weight blanket available in garden centers and garden catalogs that lets water and sunlight through. Covering isn't needed if you're overseeding into an existing lawn.
Remove the row cover after the grass is up and ready to cut. Straw can be mowed along with the grass.
6.) Water. Keep the seeded ground consistently damp near the surface to sprout the seed and then to keep young, shallow roots from drying and dying.
Figure on daily watering and possibly twice daily watering until new grass is two inches high. Then cut back to every other day or whenever the surface goes dry for the rest of the first season.