April, May June
APRIL
Now the rush is on! Plan your work,
and work your plan. But do
not yield to the temptation to plant more than
you can look out for
later on. Remember it is much easier to sow
seeds than to pull out
weeds. The Frames. Air! water! and do not let
the green plant-lice or
the white-fly get a ghost of a chance to start.
Almost every day the
glass should be lifted entirely off. Care must
be taken never to let
the soil or flats become dried out; toward the
end of the month, if it
is bright and warm, begin watering towards
evening instead of in early
morning, as you should have been doing through
the winter. If proper
attention is given to ventilation and moisture,
there will not be much
danger from the green plant-louse (aphis) and
white-fly, but at the
first sign of one fight them to a finish. Use
kerosene emulsion,
tobacco dust, tobacco preparations, or Aphine.
Seed sowing. Under glass: tomato, egg-plant and
peppers. On sod:
corn, cucumbers, melons, early squash, lima
beans. Planting, outside. Onions, lettuce,
beet, etc., if not put in
last month; also parsnip, salsify, parsley,
wrinkled peas, endive.
Toward the end of this month (or first part of
next) second plantings
of these. Set out plants of early cabbage (and
the cabbage group)
lettuce, onion sets, sprouted potatoes, beets,
etc. In the Garden. Cultivate between rows of
sowed crops; weed out
by hand just as soon as they are up enough to be
seen; watch for cutworms
and root-maggots. Fruit. Thin out all old
blackberry canes, dewberry and raspberry canes
(if this was not done, as it should have been,
directly after the
fruiting season last summer). Be ready for first
spraying of early blossoming
trees. Set out new strawberry beds, small fruits
and fruit
trees. MAY
Keep ahead of the weeds. This is
the month when those warm,
south, driving rains often keep the ground too
wet to work for days at
a time, and weeds grow by leaps and bounds. Woe
betide the gardener
whose rows of sprouting onions, beets, carrots,
etc., once become green
with wild turnip and other rapid-growing
intruders. Clean cultivation
and slight hilling of plants set out are also
essential. The Frames. These will not need so
much attention now, but care
must be taken to guard tender plants, such as
tomatoes, egg-plant and
peppers, against sudden late frosts. The sash
may be left off most of
the time. Water copiously and often. Planting,
outside. First part of the month: early beans,
early
corn, okra and late potatoes may be put in; and
first tomatoes set out
--even if a few are lost--they are readily
replaced. Finish setting out
cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower, beets, etc., from
frames. Latter part of
month, if warm: corn, cucumbers, some of sods
from frames and early
squash as traps where late crop is to be planted
or set. Fruit. Be on time with first sprayings
of late-blossoming
fruits--apples, etc. Rub off from grape vines
the shoots that are not
wanted. JUNE
Frequent, shallow cultivation!
Firm seeds in dry soil. Plant wax beans, lima
beans, pole beams,
melons, corn, etc., and successive crops of
lettuce, radish, etc. Top-dress growing crops
that need special manure (such as nitrate of
soda on onions). Prune tomatoes, and cut out
some foliage for extra
early tomatoes. Toward end of month set celery
and late cabbage. Also
sow beans, beets, corn, etc., for early fall
crops. Spray where
necessary. Allow asparagus to grow to tops.
Fruit. Attend to spraying fruit trees and
currants and
gooseberries. Make pot-layers of strawberries
for July setting.
January, February, March
July, August, September
October, November,
December |
