April is the cruelest month, say the poets. Gardeners think they may be right.
One day, it’s as warm and sunny as early summer. The next day, you’re putting newspaper over the plants that are poking leaves up in the garden but are still too frail to withstand a frost. Though the countdown to the big planting weekend has begun (less than a month away), the boomeranging weather of 24 degrees one day and snow falling the next is as unsettling as it is tempting. We’ve been lolling around all winter making summer garden plans but now want to get out there and start making it real. Chances are, some of us will go ahead and plant before the big day. But should we?
It doesn’t help that the seeds we started indoors are sprouting their heads off into enthusiastic seedlings. Or, that the ground is more and more workable every day. Or, that whole planets of earth have been spotted already delivered to some driveways, and are just lying there ready to be shovelled onto flower beds and vegetable rows. It all just can’t come fast enough is how it feels right now. But no gardener worth their salt truly trusts the weather to be good enough to garden before the holiday weekend (which falls on May 16th to 18th this year). The temptation to plant earlier, however, is high.
If you’re like me, you have in the past impatiently put flowers in too soon only to harvest dead plants before May was over. The truth is, even if plants put in early withstand a late frost, they can still be stunted by ongoing cool weather, or have problems with root development. Even if you get lucky with the weather, the ground itself is not warm enough yet.
The Plant Hardiness Zone Map of Canada, compiled by Natural Resources Canada, can be helpful about what plants will cope with our climate. It places the island of Montreal as zone 6a, with some suburban areas considered to be a cooler zone 5b. Off-island communities like Vaudreuil-Dorion are overall slightly cooler than the island of Montreal, with a steady plant hardiness zone of 5b. But the hardiness of plants geared for these zones means nothing if you’re putting them in too early.
So when you are tempted to follow those recommendations that suggest the last threat of frost will be all over by April 28, as some are doing, think again. We all know from hard experience that unexpected snow has been known to fall.
Because the poets are right. April — and sometimes even May — really can be the cruelest months.