Garden Preparation - April

At last it's time to give in to some of your stronger vegetable gardening urges! If you haven't already started, here's a short list of things to -- assuming that you've completed preparations for March...

Yes, yes - start those tomatoes and other warm weather plants now in your cellar or on the table by the window. Remember to keep the soil warm and moist. 

As mentioned here last year, as well as in probably every other gardening blog for the great Northeast, plant your peas, parsnips and spinach outside.

If they're ready, set out broccoli, cabbage  etc. 

• If you want to protect these plants from root maggots in an organic manner, consider employing a maggot mat.  Unlike a collar around the stems as a shield against cutworms, the mats are laid  tightly flat around the stems. [Use a heavy paper or landscaping cloth slit into the center with just enough of a hole for the stem.] Root maggots are the larvae of small black flies that lay eggs around the stems. By using a mat you can prevent the hatchlings from first burrowing into the ground and then burrowing into the plants.

• If you already have seedlings started in small cell or plug flats, for example, remember to transplant them to larger containers after their first true leaves appear.  Containers between 3" x 3" and 4" x 4" should serve the purpose.

•  If your garden soil is no longer wet, i.e. it doesn't stay in a ball when you pick up a handfull and gently squeeze it, you can now add your compost.  This will give the compost a headstart on starting its final decomposition making more nitrogen available.

Selecting tomato plants

As the month progresses, if you haven't started tomato seedings, you might  be feeling guilty and starting to  think about buying tomato  plants  now appearing like weeds in garden centers.

Resist those urges to buy. It's still too early - you will need to keep them warm & moist probably indoors until the end of May. [You will be able to buy plants from at a local  farmer's market well into June.] 

But, if you can't resist your urges, at least follow the advice of Craig LeHoullier (Epic Tomatoes, 2015) and DON'T BUY plants that:

• Look too big or look too leggy for their pots;
• Show discoloration or any blemishes on their leaves or stems;
• Have flowers or small fruit; or
• Look crowded or wilted.

• and, I would add, don't be afraid to ask where the plants come from... A  local source, not Canada or North Carolina, is preferable because the plants will be more acclimated and are less likely to have pests and diseases from those other locations.

Seed Saving Suggestion

I recognize that not many garderers now might  be thinking about saving seed but it just recently occurred to me that instead of either throwing out or recycling all my plastic pill vials, I could, at least, reuse some of the larger ones for saving seeds.  [I wouldn't  be surprised if I were actaully the last gardener in Rensselaer County to realize this  repurposing of these amber colored containers, but in case I'm not the last one...] I always have some seed packets that are torn or worse for wear at the end of a season that have left over seeds in them or sometimes I have heirloom (non-hybrid) seeds that I want to save. Anyway, just a thought...

And remember...

"April prepares her green traffic light, and the world thinks GO." - Christopher Morley