All the Tasks Planned for the April Garden

April in Michigan is still pretty cold, but there’s plenty to accomplish in the garden. Here’s the list of tasks I have planned for the April garden.

1. Continue Growing Seeds Indoors

There are seeds on my list that need to be started during April, including cosmos, sweet peas, red leaf hibiscus, and nasturtium. I wrote some tips to help you start seeds indoors that you can find at this link and this link. I’m glad I bought enough seed starting soil before the start of the quarantine.

I’m excited to see these ‘Black Velvet’ nasturtium this season.

2. Widen the Borders in the Mary Garden

This project only requires manual labor. I want to increase the width of the border along the hornbeam hedge. I’ll pull up the turf using a sharp spade. The key is to use string lines to cut the border edge straight.

I’ll post the progress on my Instagram stories.

The view of the Mary garden in early April 2020.

3. Document What’s Blooming in the Garden Every Week

This season I am making the effort to track what’s blooming in the garden each week. My favorite way to do this is a flat lay. I’m also planning to take photographs each week from the same vantage point so I can see how the garden changes throughout the growing season.

Flay lay image showing what was blooming in my garden the last week in March 2020.

4. Look for Existing Plants to Redeploy

They say what’s old is new again. In that spirit, I plan to move existing plants to create something new. Since I’m not buying new plants until after the quarantine is lifted, I need to be creative.

One decision I made is to redeploy the boxwood at the side entrance. I’ll replace all the boxwood I move. I counted 20 Winter Gem boxwood available for other areas in the garden. You can see the boxwood in the photo below. They’re the ones on the left side. They will make great container plants for the patio too.

‘Winter Gem’ boxwood that will be redeployed in the garden this season.

5. Think About How to Create Cool Container Gardens

I’m assuming there will be no garden center visits for quite some time. I’ve started thinking about how to use the flowers I am growing from seed to create containers for the patio. The original plan was to plant the seedlings in the garden, but now I’m thinking about using them to create something new.

I want to grow as a gardener during this quarantine. I choose to look at this as a learning opportunity. How can I take what we have around the house and be creative? I’m fascinated when ordinary objects are used in new ways. This growing season will be a chance to get creative.