It is finally April
the month where gardening really feels like it jumps into full swing
in Zone 6
Today I'm going to share with you what
I sow from seed both and out
in April, in my Zone 6 Ohio garden.
Let's take a look.
Now in April I'm typically direct sowing
a lot of the same things that I do in March
and that is because like to have succession harvests
and I tend to plant things about 2 to 4 weeks apart
so that I'm getting a continual harvest through the early summer.
So I will be direct sowing things like
all the leafy greens.
Lettuce, chard, kale, mizuna or mustard,
and collards.
Now most of those things I can plant successions all through the month of April,
the only leafy green that I won't do that with is spinach.
And with spinach, if I do a planting in April
it's only in very early April.
And that is because I tend to not have success with my later sowings,
only because it gets so hot here by May that the spinach just typically does not do well.
I will also do successions of my root crops.
So additional carrots, beets, radishes, turnips
and I'll direct sow some kohlrabi in addition to the transplants that I'm putting out.
I will often also do a second sowing of peas in April
depending on the weather. If it's staying nice and cool I'll usually try to get some in.
And then I like to do succession sowings of my herbs
like cilantro, calendula and dill this month as well.
In April I'm also planting quite a few cool season cover crops.
So for example, I've got a blend over here which is
oats, vetch and winter peas.
I've got my beloved tiller radish
and them over there I've got a mustard blend.
And it's not seed, but in mid-April I typically transplant all of my brassicas,
so my broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, kohlrabi
out into the garden. I'll also be transplanting
my fennel a little later in the month,
and some years I'll do a late planting of potatoes this month as well.
I'm still starting seeds indoors in the month of April as well.
Now if you recall in last month's video I promised to explain why
I go against the popular practice of planting tomatoes in March, sometimes even February
and do them instead in very early April.
So the reason is, that I am lazy.
I don't like to do any more work than I have to
and through a series of tests I found that I really didn't have to start my tomatoes that early
and I didn't need them to be that big.
So I was curious about how a smaller plant would do compared to a larger plant
so several years back, I did a test
where I started some tomatoes at my normal time, so early March,
ended up transplanting them twice into larger pots, until I ended up in a
I think it was almost like a 9 inch deep pot
and then started the same variety later in the season
and transplanted them directly from my small 50 cell plug trays.
To my surprise, the small transplant caught up to the large transplant within
a matter of weeks, it was amazing
and the time to fruiting wasn't any different between the two.
So what happened, was that the larger plant was that the larger plant was going through some transplant shock
and the smaller one was not, it was just able to just bound right into growth.
So ever since that test, I've started my tomatoes later and just transplanted out a smaller seedling
and it works fine for me.
Now as I mentioned in the earlier video, there is nothing wrong with starting your tomatoes early
it's not going to hurt then, but I just like to save myself some work.
So yes, very beginning of April I am starting tomatoes indoors,
I will also start tomatillos.
The beginning of April I will also do some late sowings of cabbage and broccoli
and I will start my Brussels sprouts at the beginning of this month.
In mid-April I will start my marigolds and my nasturtiums
I'll also direct sow nasturtiums out a little later in the garden, but I like to have these for an early start
and I will start my peanuts.
Now peanuts don't love to be transplanted, but I pretty much have to start them indoors
to give them the nice long growing season that they want to be able to grow them here in Zone 6
so I start those in peat pots, the kind that you can bury pot and all
so that the roots aren't going through such a big transplant shock when I move them out to the garden.
And at the end of the month I like to start all my zinnias.
Now after getting all of that planted, we just have to wait for that frost free date in May.
So be sure to subscribe to catch next month's episode of what I plant when
to see everything that's being sown from seed after the frost free date in May
Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time!