This is a busy month in the garden. In the north, gardeners are ready to get going. They've done some planting in March (early peas and potatoes) but they are usually ready to do much more planting, despite the fact that there's often still snow on the ground. In the south, gardeners are finishing with any cool season crops, and moving forward with the summer garden of corn, tomatoes, and cucumbers.


No matter which zone you're in, this is a good time to pay attention to things like watering properly and making sure that areas are mulched to help conserve water. The compost pile should also be turned regularly, as it is undoubtedly filling up with all kinds of plant matter from teh garden.

Here are some things to take care of to get your garden off to a good start.

Short Season (Zones 3 through 5)

• Finish harvesting fall crops such as parsnips and carrots.
• As soon as soil can be worked, start digging compost into your beds.
• Give the lawn a topdressing of compost or composted manure and rake it in well.
• When the soil is able to be worked, plant onion sets, spinach, parsnips, carrots, peas, and lettuce
• Start seeds of squash, melons, and corn indoors.
• Start corms for gladiolus indoors.
• Sprout seed potatoes in preparation for planting.
• Remove winter protection from strawberries, roses, and perennials.
• Plant flowers such as primroses and lily of the valley.
• Plant raspberries
• Dig and divide daylilies and irises.

• Start tomatoes indoors for an early crop (if you have a low tunnel or hoop house to plant them in.
• Start spring brococli indoors.
• Sow lettuce every two weeks for a continuous spring harvest.
• Sow spinach regularly as well.

Mid-Length Season (Zones 6 through 7)

• Clean up the garden by removing old plants and raking back winter mulch.
• Top dress beds with compost in preparation for planting.
• Plant peas, spinach, beets, carrots, turnips, and potatoes.
• Install pea trellises.
• Dig and divide perennials such as shasta daisies, mums, and phlox.
• Plant pansies and foxgloves.
• Direct sow sweeds for sweet peas, bachelor's buttons, or larkspur.
• Continue to plant and thin carrots and lettuce for regular harvests.
• Mulch around the bases of cool season crops so their roots will stay cool and moist as the weather warms.
• Plant rhododendrons and azaleas.

Long Season (Zones 8 and Up)

• Feed flowers and vegetables with compost or manure tea. This is best done as a foliar feed early in the day so the foliage can dry before nightfall.
• Plant crowder and black eyed peas, okra, sweet potatoes, peanuts, squash, melons, corn, and cucumbers.
• Sow basil outdoors regularly.
• Build and maintain a compost pile.
• Add new mulch to beds and paths.
• Start watching for slugs and snails -- hand pick them and toss in a bucket of soapy water.
• Plant bush beans and sweet corn every two weeks for a continuous harvest.
• Thin fruits on trees
• Plant petunias, wax begonias, and impatiens.
• Direct sow marigolds, sunflowers, salvia, zinnias, and lisianthus.
• Plant perennials such as daisies, yarrow, coreopsis, penstemon, and daylilies.
• Plant tropical edible fruits and veggies such as malanga or ginger root.
• Install trellises for cucumbers and climbing squashes.

So, there you have it: your April organic gardening to-do list. It's not an overwhelming amount of "stuff" to do, but all of these items are things that will help your garden be productive and healthy, and keep you from getting overwhelmed later on in the season. A little work now will save you tons of work later on, and it's a great idea to take advantage of cool weather for things like building trellises and digging new beds.