April is a month when gardeners long to plant but as T.S. Eliot said, it is “the cruelest month.” Warm days are often interspersed with freezing temperatures damaging over-eager plants that set their buds too soon. Over eager gardeners can also make mistakes. An exemplary gardener, Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13th in 1743 and he died at 83 in 1826. He spent 60 years developing the gardens of his estate at Monticello in Virginia, and he kept meticulous garden records. In his era all plants were open-pollinated so seeds could be gathered to grow the plants for the following year. 

Today many of our vegetables and flowers are hybrids, and their seeds don’t produce new plants. However, gardeners can still find sources for seeds from heirloom plants. Many of our annual old fashioned flowers such as larkspur, hollyhock, cleome, celosia and love-in-the-mist may self seed in our gardens and this is another reason not to begin digging in our flower beds too early. Jefferson’s records helped him to learn more about the patterns of growth during the seasons in his garden. Yet he never felt he knew enough, because towards the end of his life he wrote, “Even though I am an old man I am still a young gardener.” Young as well as old gardeners are important in April, but whatever our age and experience, this month we must be cautious.

This is Moya Andrews and today we focused on the cruelest month.