Gardeners Checklist: Here Is What to Do on the Week of April 28

By Ron Kujawski 

* Set raspberry plants 30 inches apart when planting. Spacing between rows should be at least six feet. Plant an everbearing variety, e.g., ‘Heritage’, for fall harvests and at least one variety of summer-bearing raspberry. ‘Taylor’ and ‘Latham’ are good choices for New England gardens. On a cautious note, do not plant raspberries where potatoes, tomatoes or eggplant have been grown within three years. This is to avoid problems with wilt disease.

* Work in an organic or inorganic fertilizer with an analysis of 5-10-5 or 5-10-10 at a rate of two pounds per 100 square feet before planting annuals and/or perennials in the flower garden.

* Plant roses while the weather is still cool and the soil is moist. Picking fool-proof roses for New England can be a thorny task. I get a little nervous about recommending roses because some people get rather prickly if they don’t work out. However, a family of roses called Knockout seems to come as close to fool-proof as any I’ve seen. They are quite hardy, disease-resistant, and need little pruning unless grown to be a hedge. 

 * Be nice to the birds when adding shrubs to your home landscape. The primary needs of birds are food and shelter. Evergreens such as spruce and hemlock, and thickets of dogwood, can provide shelter while fruit-bearing shrubs — elderberry, chokeberry, cotoneaster, and American cranberry — will keep birds fed. Just don’t stand under a tree where a well-fed bird is perched.

* Plant shade-tolerant perennials that have interesting foliage and texture. It’s tough to find shade plants with long-lasting flowers. So, plant perennials with attractive leaves and textures. Variegated Jacob’s ladder, coral bells, lady’s mantle, Japanese painted fern, spotted dead nettle, hosta, and variegated hakonechloa fit the bill nicely.                                                               

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As everyone knows, “April showers bring May flowers.” Yet, this year, some warm March weather brought May flowers ... in April. But not all May flowers bloomed in April, and there'll be more than enough May flowers to feed our enthusiasm for flower gardening. It’s that enthusiasm that also prompts gardeners in droves to rush to their favorite garden center to buy more flowering plants this month. And what do we tend to buy? May bloomers, that is, plants that flower in May, not the baggy undergarments. May flowers are beautiful, but make sure you are giving some thought to the rest of the year. A flower garden with only May bloomers can look similar to baggy undergarments come summertime. 

So, try to look beyond the plants now in flower and consider also those that will provide June, July, August, and September flowers following May showers. Some long-blooming, sun-loving perennials for summer flowering include: pincushion flower (Scabiosa columbaria), threadleaf coreopsis (Coreopsis verticillata ‘Zagreb'), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), violet sage (Salvia x sylvestris), and Shasta daisy.

Ron Kujawski began gardening at an early age on his family's onion farm in upstate New York. Although now retired, he spent most of his career teaching at the UMass Extension Service. He serves on Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Horticulture Advisory Committee. His book, Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook, is available here.