Looking Ahead | A Note from Rick Bogusch
April 16, 2025
By Rick Bogusch
If March is when it all begins, April is when everything has to be done at once.
It’s time to sow indoors and in the gardens, finish any old business from last season, prune the roses when forsythia blooms, spray the orchard and weed, weed, weed. Cool-season weeds like hairy bittercress, chickweed and garlic mustard flower freely in cold, wet weather, so it’s good to pull them before they go to seed.
It's also time to plant. At Bridge Gardens, we’ve been planting trees, native trees like red maple, sweetgum, oaks, butternuts, tupelo and sweet birch, with more waiting in the nursery. They’re part of our effort to showcase the beauty of natives and demonstrate how they are on a par with any exotic with the added advantage that they are good for local wildlife, including birds and pollinators. None of these new plantings are instant trees. They’re mostly 3-4 feet tall and pencil-thin but hold promise for all the benefits trees give us. It’s been said that society grows great when people plant trees under whose shade they will never sit, a good proverb for all of us to follow.
In the Vegetable Garden, arugula, radishes, scallions and peas are up, onions and leeks have been planted and overwintered spinach is ready to harvest. Soon, it will be time to sow beets and plant cole crops like broccoli and cabbage. Later in the month, lettuce seeds and seedlings can be planted and once soil temperature reaches 55 degrees, the first carrots can be sown.
Indoors, we’re sowing tomatoes, peppers and eggplants to grow under lights until they can be hardened off and planted in the garden at the end of May. If there’s room, we’ll also start sowing annuals for the Herb Garden.
It’s always a good time to visit Bridge Gardens, but April’s daffodils are a must-see. I hope to see you enjoying them and all the other spring bloomers soon.
Happy Gardening!
Rick Bogusch
Garden Director, Bridge Gardens
rbogusch@peconiclandtrust.org