“April showers bring May flowers”…

Or so they sing in the East, but not here in the Sacramento Valley. April here is the month that all the rains of the winter and early Spring work to create.

Not that it’s all downhill from here on (just wait for May!)

But in shiny April the roses bloom and the crazy irises explode and–just look above and below–the wisteria and ceonothus ( AKA Western lilac) take over the side garden to  bring us a canopy of golden bees and black bumble bees.

Oh yes, did I say the roses bloom..

…and did I say something about irises?

This is their month.

We bought three plants (see above) four years ago from an iris farm in our region, to plant beside one another in the southwest corner of the garden. As is their nature, the plants expand their territory each year, and growers can, if they wish, transplant the new growth to a different spot. I’ve chosen not to, so the three have gradually taken a bit more land each year and have produced more and more magnificent blooms–in April. The show lasts a few weeks and then is over for the year.

The rest of the time, into summer, the leaves gradually fade and brown out, to be cut away and composted, or mulched up.  I like to keep watering them a bit through the dry season, so some green remains and the soil stays moist. But once the rains come in the fall, I know that the new growth is happening on the rhizome underground. The new shoots start popping up in February, and around the first of April the buds appear on the new flower stalks.

As you can see on the photo above, the three plants mature at different times of the month. In our garden, the middle plant always is the precocious one, and the showiest. But the other two have their own chances for the limelight.

The Fruit Trees: Orange, Lemon, Apricot, Peach, Cherry Plum

Apricot. This will be the first to harvest, in May. This year’s will be less than last year’s, maybe only a third as many for drying, jam, and cakes. The tree was trimmed extensively in June 2018.

Cherry Plum. In contrast, the cherry plum, which will harvest in June, is set for an amazing bumper crop. I can’t recall when there were so many plums so early. This tree, too, was trimmed in June 2018, just before last year’s harvest.

Peach. Also extensively trimmed in June, 2018, this spindly, crooked tree always looks in February like it won’t come back. But then the blossoms appear in March, and the first tiny, tiny fruit appear not long therafter, and so by April the baby green peaches are growing–looking forward to harvest in late June and early July.

Orange. The final navel orange of 2018-19 was plucked by April 1, even as the new buds were appearing. By mid April the tree was covered in buds and the blooms appeared last week–with the bees everywhere immediately, attracted by the heavenly fragrance, as we were.

Meyer Lemon. The lemon bush is only about a week behind the orange in blooming.  Right now in the last week of April the bush is rich in blooms and bees. Like the orange, it is heading for harvest in December after a long, slow, hot growing season.

(Hmm, did I show you more roses?)

Herbs: Old Faithfuls and New Plants

Many of our herbs are perennials.

• Some, like rosemary and chives, are green year-round.
• Others, like Greek oregano, lemon verbena, and both culinary and Russian sage, lose their leaves in winter, but come back in spring.
• Still others, like parsley, marjoram, and thyme, can last through the winter, but may dry out in summer (if they get too much sun in our hot climate) and need to be replaced.

Others, such as sweet and Italian basil, are annuals. They need to be replaced each spring.

All of the herbs grow great in pots or in the ground. Most of ours are in pots–which I like so that I can move them around so they don’t get too much summer sun. NOTE: even though virtually every planting guide says herbs like “full sun,” that doesn’t mean the up-to-12 hours of sun a day in 90+ degree temps that our climate gives them in summer. Only a few of our herbs–the basils and the Russian sage–can take that kind of onslaught.

Instead, by keeping them in pots, I can shift the pots to sunnier or less sunny spots, mostly in the less sunny. Indeed, the parsley, marjoram, thyme, and chives thrive in the quite shady areas around our fountain on the back veranda.

Because they are in pots, without much soil to hold water, I water in the dry season every other day, about a quart each time for each plant, especially in summer.

Now, in late April, all are thriving, and it is so easy to pluck a sprig or two or three for salads, stews, and soups.

New Veggies and Two Fruits, One of Them New

April is planting month for the spring and summer veggies. This year it’s

• tomatoes, as always–Husky Red cherry, Golden grape, Ace, and T67 (a UC Davis mid-size variety)–7 plants total
• Black Beauty eggplants (3)–which did so well last year
• Burpless cucumbers (2)–which also thrived last year and made great pickles
• mild peppers (3)–green, red, and cajun red (slightly spicy)
• arugula–multiple plants from spread seed–which I actually planted in December and which are coming into their own now
• leaf lettuce–six plants, into the ground in March and being slowly harvested, meal by meal, now.

One of the two fruits is strawberries–6 new plants to accompany the five other perennials–I planted them the first week in April and they are already producing!

The other fruit–a first for our garden–is blueberries. As of this week, two of these acid-loving plants are now in the area between the peach tree and the meyer lemon. Let’s see how they do over the summer to come.

One More Rose for April…and a Few More Flowers

I’ll close this April tour with yet another rose. One not like the others, but a rose in its own right, which graces the very front of our garden in April of each year and has spread over four years to command the space: the California rock rose.

I can’t resist showing three more April blooms:

Now, on to May!