April 2026 Gardening Activities

Monthly Garden Tasks Guide

Stay on track with essential gardening activities for this month, including planting, pruning, lawn care, and seasonal maintenance tasks.

Plant

Roses (no later than April 15). Buy azaleas while in bloom so you will know the bloom color.  After April 15, plant annuals and warm-weather vegetables, caladiums, and container plants.  You can direct seed easy-to-grow flowering annuals and vegetables.

Lawn Care

Spot control weeds with herbicides. Overseed any thin fescue lawn by the end of the month

Fertilize

spring-blooming shrubs after blooming.

Prune

Cut back any woody perennials that may need it, like rosemary, rue, lavender, Santolina, and Artemisia. Prune flowering shrubs as soon as they finish blooming.

Other

Inspect plants for insect damage and fungal disease, and treat as needed.  Late in the month, move houseplants outside. Apply a soil drench of imidacloprid to Crepe Myrtles attacked by bark scale last year.

April is also the month for plant sales. Check out these upcoming plant sales for native plants, ornamental grasses and other unusual plants as well as annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees.

  • Lichterman Nature Center April 10 & 11
  • Dixon Gallery and Gardens April 16 – 18
  • Memphis Botanic Garden April 16 – 18
  • Bartlett City Beautiful April 24 – 26

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Picture of Tom Rieman

Tom Rieman

Tom Rieman is a long time hobby gardener with an interest in landscape and urban horticulture. As a Tennessee Extension Master Gardener and a past president of the Memphis Horticultural Society, Tom is a frequent presenter to local garden clubs and civic groups and writes a monthly column for the Bartlett Express Newspaper and Midtown Living Magazine.

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