What to Plant in April (Cold, Mild, & Warm Climates)

Foreign. Is a make or break month for all of us as gardeners. If we plant the right plants this month, we are setting ourselves up for our best summer ever. But don't worry, I've got you covered in this video. I'm going to cover the five plants you should plant this month, whether you're growing in a cool, a mild or a warm climate, so that you know exactly what to plant this month. So no matter where you live, April will be the month where you get it right when it comes to planting. If you're in a cold place, then this month is the one when you're finally going to start to warm up a little bit. Fingers crossed you want to be planting some green seeds, things that you can grow for salads, because salad season is very short in cool weather places because you start to warm up in the summer pretty quickly. So I love this red lettuce leaf. This red lettuce leaf is going to give you loads of harvest and it will last longer into the warmer part of the summer as things start to heat up. Next up would be carrots. If you have not planted your carrots yet, this is the month to do so. If you're in a cool climate, carrots love cooler weather. They've got that nice tap root that's going to dig down into the soil and they do not mind frost, but they take quite a bit, at least around two weeks to germinate. If you have not started your basil yet, right now is the time to do so, because basil is going to give you so much production for so many months of the summer, but it does not like frost. So you're going to start your seeds for basil indoors right now. Grow those under lights for about four to six weeks, and then when you hit your last frost in May, you'll be ready to throw out tons of basil. Eggplant is one that's going to go out into the garden later into the warm season once the temps really start to be consistently in the 70s. The 80s realm and eggplants are lovers of really hot weather, and so they're not going to like it right at the start of your warm season. So now's a great time to get them growing indoors. You can move them out to the garden when the weather really starts to warm up. The sun is out for longer during the day, and you can make the most of those long warm days that you finally get to enjoy after you escape the cold. All right, finally, last thing to start indoors would be melons. If you're growing in A cold, a cool climate, you have a shorter opportunity to get these plan that take 110, 120 days to get to maturity. So the trick is to start now with seeds indoors. Grow yourself some nice, mature young plants that you can move out to the garden and get a jump start on growing these longer enduring plants throughout the summer. All right, my mild climate gardeners, this is the month where your garden is really taking off. At this point, you've got all your plants growing in the garden for the cool season. And now it's time to start spring sprinkling in plants that are going to grow once frost has passed. So everything except for this first plant, these are things you're going to put into the garden once there is no more chance of frost, I repeat, no chance of frost, for these plants to go out into the garden directly by seed. So arugula is frost tolerant. So right at the start of April, if you've still got a chance of frost, you can still plant arugula in all your blank spaces and get lots of greens from it. You can also grow pole beans and bush beans, but this one is going to be after the threat of frost has passed. Peas love growing when it's cold and there's frost, but beans do not. They want to be sure there's no frost happening. So once you pass that frost date, this is a great filler plant. You can just literally go into the holes and empty spaces in your garden and stick some bean seeds in those holes. Next up would be cucumbers. So these also can be planted directly by seed into the garden. They're going to need a support. If you're growing the vining variety, they're going to need to have a trellis or a net, something that's about five to six feet right next to where you're planting those seeds. And these are going to grow great from seed into a plant inside this season. Next up is zucchini. Same plant family as those cucumbers. And these zucchini can be planted directly by seed in the garden once the threat of frost has passed. And they're going to grow right over the edge of your bed. Zucchini is one of those plants that will give you fruit in about 60 or 65 days. They don't need a ton of time on the plant and they will produce so much for you. And finally, zinnias, my favorite cut flower for the garden. It's now time to put these seeds directly into the garden after the threat of frost has passed. So zinnias do not like frost. If you haven't started zinnias indoors, which you would have if you had watched the March video, but that'll be for next year. So if you missed that one, then now is the time to just take these seeds and just go straight to the garden. Just put them right into the soil. You'll end up with flowers by June, July, and you'll have great blooms all through the year. We've got a great video all about how to make the most of your zinnias, so you can check that out after you watch this video. So these are the things you want to be planting all outdoors, directly by seed in the garden if you're growing in a mild climate. Finally, my warm climate gardeners, you've been sunning for months and we're all very jealous, but now you've got to start getting ready for hotter temperatures. So these are the things you want to be growing this month in your garden and prepping yourself for the warmer months that are heading your way in the summertime. So basil is one that you can grow directly in the soil. If you haven't started basil yet in your garden, this is a perfect time to do so. And basil will grow really nicely from seed that's planted directly in the soil. So if you've got empty spaces in your garden, basil is a great that will get you through those really hot months of the summer, and it can be used as a salad green. If you haven't started your okra yet, now is the time to do so. You could start it indoors, or you could also attempt to just plant the seeds directly in the soil in your garden. You're going to need to give these guys a lot of space. These need at least one full square foot in the garden, and you want to be sure there's not a lot of shade around where these seeds are planted, so they can grow up to full maturity. Okra plants will get 6, 8, 10ft tall by the middle of the summer, but this is a plant that will fill your garden up as you go into the hottest parts of the summertime. Next up is eggplants. Eggplants are very similar to okra in that they don't mind extreme heat. So if you haven't started these yet indoors or you don't have your plants ready to go, this is a great time to start some seeds directly in the garden. Finally, we cannot leave out our flowers. And so zinnias are actually a great flower to have in the garden throughout the hottest parts of the summer. If you haven't started zinnias by seed yet, now is a great time to literally take the seed and just sprinkle them in those open spaces in your garden. Finally, sweet potatoes. This will hold your soil, your garden, your sanity together through the hottest parts of the summer. And now is the time to start them. So you can take a sweet potato and simply place it in some compost indoors and let it start to grow slips. Or if you've got space and you're ready and it's warm enough, you can literally take a sweet potato and just plant that directly in the soil. So if you don't want to grow any of these during the summertime, at least make sure you're growing some of this. So if you're missing any of these seeds when it comes to planting this month, I'll put a link to my favorites right below this video. And if you want help on how to lay it all out and plant it in the bed, I've got some tips for you below the video too. Thanks so much for listening to the Grow youw Self podcast. You can keep listening and anywhere you love getting your podcast delivered on Apple podcasts, on Spotify, iHeartRadio, you name it, we are there for you. And if you want to read the notes and get our free resources to help you grow more, you can go to gardenary.com podcast.