Everything You Can Start From Seed Or Plant NOW – April Gardening Tips & Ideas

It’s April and I have a ton of garden ideas for you! In this month’s garden guide, I focus on the vegetable crops and plants that can be started from seed or planted during the month of April and summer garden planning. I share ideas for various edible crop categories that is applicabale no matter where your located. I also cover important garden tasks like mitigating garden pests, treating for plant leaf diseases, and installing shade cloth. Plus, I discuss my techniques for growing a lot of fruit trees in a small space. I share all my tips and tricks as a professional seed and plant nursery so you can apply them at home.

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***Everything Mentioned In This Video***
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hey there Gardener welcome to my April Garden guide which gives you ideas on things to either start from seed or transplant right now along with expert tips and garden task reminders to help keep you on track I do a garden guide every month so if you enjoy this video make sure you subscribe to my channel so you don’t miss a single one you can find my monthly Garden guides in my monthly Garden guides playlist or join my email group and I will send you the guide automatically at the beginning of each month I will link all of these things in the description below if you are new here hello and welcome my name is j and I teach people how to garden and grow food so you’ve come to the right place if you want to improve your gardening skills all right let’s get started with this guide the majority of the United States should be passed their last spring Frost dates or passing it this month in April I know there are a few of you that have last spring Frost dates a bit further even into May therefore as I review each crop category I will say if you passed your last spring frost date then do this if you haven’t passed it then do this I just want to be a little bit more accurate for everybody if you do not know your last spring frost date then please visit this website right here enter in your zip code and it will give you an estimated date this date is very important to know because you will backtrack from here to figure out when to se seeds or figure out when you can start planting outside okay let’s talk about all the things that can be started from seed or transplanted this month I’m going to go through each crop but just know that I probably have a dedicated growing guide specific for that crop that will give step-by-step directions on how to grow up from seed so if one exist I will link all of that stuff Below in the description and don’t forget to check out my website if you want to find seeds or plants for anything that I mentioned in my videos our very first crop is beans all sorts of beans if you’re past your last spring frost a you can safely direct those seeds for beans right now if you’re not past your last spring frost a either wait or you can sew one bean seed per sale of a 72 cell seed tray 3 weeks before your last spring frost date to basically grow out your own plug and get an early start on your bean season now let me discuss the differences across the bean types cuz there’s a lot to choose from if you want to grow a standard green bean go for Bush or pole beans like this these right here bush bean plants are compact staying around 1 to 1 and 1/2 ft tall so they’re great for small spaces or under other bigger crops like tomatoes and peppers pole beans grow very long Vines so they produce a lot more but require a trellis to grow up on cow peas or Southern peas like these right here tolerate high heat conditions a lot better than traditional green beans they usually grow into low sprawling types of bushy plants that have short Vines which is great for blocking weeds they produce a lot of beans best eaten as fresh beans and produced over a much longer period of time when compared to traditional green beans lima beans like these Christmas beans usually are Vining plants too they can be harvested and eaten fresh or dry the seeds so they can be stored over a long period of time the beans also tend to be pretty big in size lastly we have yardlong beans like these right here yardlong beans are the most heat tolerant Bean type thing that I grow right here in my garden they handle the tropical light conditions that I get during the summer here in my Florida garden the bush pole and lima beans cannot they basically start dying once the extreme heat and rains of my summer arrives so I switch to Growing yard long beans and the cow peas or Southern peas during the summer specifically moving along our next crop is corn if you’re past your last spring froste you can begin direct sewing seeds for corn and that’s all sorts of corn sweet corn Dent popcorn or Flint corn I have issues getting good germination when I direct sew corn seeds so I start them indoors in 72 cell seed trays I put the trays over a heat mat or inside of a mini Greenhouse so it’s nice and warm which helps with germination once the seedlings are about 3 weeks old they’re ready to be transplanted into the garden if you’re not past your last spring froste you can sew corn seeds 3 weeks before your last spring frosted to get a head start on the season this technique is not so practical if you’re growing fields of corn in that case it’s better to direct sew the seeds but for small backyard home gardeners like me with just a few beds of corn this technique works out great and this leads me into the next crop to start growing this month squash I like to grow squash underneath my corn plants because they sprawl out under the corn block out weeds and maximize how many things I can grow in the same space if you add a Vining type of Bean in the mix as well it will grow up The Corn stocks for vertical support this gardening strategy comes from Native Americans and it’s called three sisters gardening if you’re past your last spring frost a you can direct so seeds for squash if you’re not past your last spring Frost eight you can sew one maybe two squash seeds in a 4in size pot indoors about 6 to 8 weeks before your last spring froste now just three Pro tips when it comes to growing squash so you guys will be successful number one I say this all the time if you struggle to grow squash because of squash bugs or the dreaded squash Vine boar I highly recommend that you choose squash cultivars in one of these two groups these type of squash cultivars have extra thick and Woody stems that make it hard for the bugs to get into and they have higher disease tolerances I’m not saying you won’t get any pest or diseases it’s just that these are extra tough plants that will tolerate more disease and pest pressure before ultimately giving out and dying so this will increase your chances of harvesting something tip number two the worms and Cat pillars will come some of you don’t have such a bad issue with chewing insects like worms and caterpillars I wish that was my situation here in Florida they just get insane here ideally I would love to just handpick them off my plants so I don’t have to use a spray but I get so many here in my Florida garden it’s impossible to keep up with it so if that’s your situation too use BT spray which is an organic spray I will link to the one that I use in the description below please be careful though when using any kind of spray even if it’s organic spray only the affected plants do not spray flowers and only spray in the evening when the pollinators have left for the day that way everything is dry before they return in the morning of the next day BT is only effective if the pest chews a leaf and ingests it bees and butterflies don’t chew leaves so it doesn’t really affect them but it will kill butterfly caterpillars so don’t spray butterfly caterpillar host plants please do not use a product like SE dust that just kills everything and my third tip is if you get any kind of leaf diseases especially powdery mildew with squash spray with one cup of hydrogen peroxide per gallon of water that’s the only thing I use to to treat all sorts of leaf diseases and I say it in almost all my videos because it works I’m going to tell you right now squash and tomatoes are probably the most difficult crops to grow for gardeners in hot climates with high disease and pest pressure so give yourself some slack and if they get a disease or pest it’s normal don’t freak out and I wanted to show you guys this beautiful flower I had to do my video right next to it cuz it’s just gorgeous this is edible chanthon usually the leaves are used like in Asian cuisine as like a cooked green or in stir fries and things like that but the flowers are also and you can dry them to make tea I don’t think it’s the same exact crysanthemum variety used to make official crysanthemum tea but you could still make tea with it but I didn’t even plant these here on purpose these actually receded from last season and I am totally fine with that you probably hear me say it quite often if something is so happy in my garden that it decides to Reed I am totally fine with that and I just leave it right where it is so not only are these flowers just beautiful they’re like the epitomy of spring to me but the entire plant is edible too and I definitely have seeds on my website if you want to try growing it okay so moving on to the next crop greens this category is drastically different between what I call hot climate and cold climate gardeners so let me break it down for you you are a hot climate Gardener if you have hot summers with days consistently above 90° F and Mild Winters where it doesn’t snow and your ground doesn’t freeze most likely that is South USA Garden zones 8 and up even though some of you zone eight people do get snow you are a cold climate Gardener if you have tempered Summers I kind of think of Minnesota or Michigan where your summer day Highs are like in the 70s and and 80s I’m sure you get the occasional Heat Wave but it’s not 90° F or higher every single day like me here in Florida and then you have cold Winters with snow most likely this is those of you in zones seven and Below or you Zone 8 and nine people in the Pacific Northwest if you’re a hot climate Gardener stop planting cool season greens like lettuce and spinach in this month of April it is time to transition over to heat tolerant tropical greens like these right here the coold weather stuff is just going to get stunted and growth and bolt which means go to the flower ing stage and taste bitter due to being exposed to too much heat these tropical alternative type greens will carry you through summer there are a few greens that you might get away with if you sew seeds or transplant right now like these right here and I mean it when I say like right now the early part of April these are more heat tolerant than most so you should be able to harvest before things really start to heat up or try growing the cool seasoned greens indoors if you can if you’re a hot climate Gardener watching this video the number one tip that I want you to get out of this video for the month of April is to stop planting cool season or spring crops I am planting summer now yes plant summer now the goal is to harvest everything out before summer comes and kills everything or just makes gardening very difficult if you’re a cold climate Gardener you can plant cool seasoned greens like these right here but only if you’re past your last spring Frost dat if you’re not past your last spring frost8 then so seeds endur about 6 to 8 weeks before your last spring Frost dat so I figured I would show you what I have growing in my green stock Garden Towers because this is just looking amazing amazing and this is basically stuff that I recommend right now for the cold climate gardeners not the hot climate I started these from seed in March just as one last attempt to hurry up and grow some more different kind of cool seasoned greens like all of these different Lett uses here I’ve got bok choy this Whit stem Canton boach Choy is my absolute favorite box Choy ever so this one’s really good and I’ve got some arugula here which I was not a big fan of arugula until I started growing it myself but in particular the baby greens they taste really good they don’t have really hard like that arugula peppery type flavor more like mustard greens and things like that it’s a little bit more mellowed out but very Savory super delicious so I harvest these when they’re super tiny like this so I’ve got the arugula here and then I kind of switched it out with some tat soy as well tat soy is my favorite substitute for spinach because it’s very hard for me to grow spinach here in my zone 10A Garden it’s possible I have grown it before but it just honestly doesn’t get cold enough for it to be happy and really grow big and Lush in my garden but but tat soy is a near perfect substitute it chops like it it Cooks like it I use it in all of the same recipes that I would use spinach but it doesn’t have that strong spinachy type flavor but still it tastes great so if you’re a hot climate Gardener definitely recommend planting some tatso write now in April if you can and then the last here at the very bottom I planted a bunch of Swiss chard I love eating the baby greens of Swiss chard not so much the bigger ones but the baby greens are really good and these stems are all different color colors so just really really beautiful and when this gets more filled out as the season progresses it’s going to look so gorgeous and of course I probably have seats for all this stuff on my website these are all the different kinds of lettuces that I currently have on my website I wanted to plant all of them really quick before my season ended but yeah if you’re a cold climate Gardener you can direct so seeds for all of this stuff right now if you’re a hot climate Gardener I only recommend tat soy and the Canton Bach Choy at this moment but anyways back to my cold climate gardeners the next category is just for you and that would be things in the brasas family if you still have like 8 to 12 weeks before your last spring Frost day you can start sewing seeds for things in the brasas family like these things right here or you can transplant them as soon as your last spring Frost AE has passed I do not recommend any of these brascas for hot climate gardeners right now it is just going to get way too hot instead plan on sewing seeds indoors in July or August to transplant them in September or October they grow better during the fall winter and early spring for hot climates with mild Winters next up we have herbs it is okay to either transplant or direct so seeds for all sorts of herbs if you’re past your last spring frosta here are some ideas of herbs that I love to grow they’re a must grow for me every single season many of these are host plants for various butterflies and attract loads of beneficials to your garden if you’re absolutely past all danger of Frost then you can also plant these types of tropical herbs some of these can be started from seed While others are grown from cuting or root pieces like ginger for example which is grown from aizone these tropical herbs will carry you through the summer when all the traditional European herbs start to die off from just way too much heat or rain if you’re not past your last spring Frost eight then start sewing seeds for herbs indoors 6 to 8 weeks before your last spring frosta and I really love to sew rows and rows of herbs in these 72 cell sea trays so I can grow a lot of them at once or if you have existing plants in your garden you can propagate by taking cuting this method is much faster than starting all the way from seed our next crop are onions I have a whole bunch of them growing in this greenstock Garden Tower but I also have them all all over my garden in general because a lot of pests are kind of repelled by the smell of things in the alien family so I love to interplant onions just everywhere but I got to break this one down between hot and cold climate gardeners if you’re a hot climate Gardener we transplant onions in the fall so they grow over the winter and get harvested sometime in spring so it’s too late to be Planting bulbing onions right now just to give you an idea I sew onion seeds in July to transplant in October but you can’t sew seeds or transplant other things in the alien family like chives and bunching onions right now in April if you’re a cold climate Gardener you’re supposed to sew onion seeds 2 to 3 months before your last spring Frost dat so they’re ready to transplant as soon as all danger of freeze has passed if you’re late to sewing onion seeds and your last spring frost date is approaching then purchase onion transplants and plant them once you’re past your last spring Frost dat the next group of crops is another one for our cold climate friends only and that would be radish beets and turnips if you’re a cold climate Gardener then go ahead and direct SE seeds once you’re past your last spring Frost dat if you’re a hot climate Gardener it’s too late for these things you can direct so seeds again and fall and another crop for cold climate gardeners is peas you guys can direct SE seeds for lots of peas sweet peas snap peas and snow peas once you’re past your last spring froste that is they are so easy to grow and have a much higher sugar content when eaten fresh or recently harvested when compared to the ones that you buy at the grocery store peas are usually ready to start harvesting in about 2 and 1/2 months too so very quick to harvest from seed peas do not like the heat though if exposed to too much heat The Vines start to dry out and turn brown like what you see here if you’re a hot climate Gardener peas season has passed plan to sew more seeds for peas in October and November to grow through fall and winter if you’re past your last spring Frost eight you can start direct sewing seeds or transplanting all sorts of flowers if you’re not past your last spring frost a then sew seeds indoors 6 to 8 weeks before your last spring frost a to get an early start just like the herbs I like to sew rows and rows of flowers in 72 cell sea trays you could potentially take cuting and propagate a whole bunch too flowers should be an integral part of your garden because they are host plants for various butterflies and they attract pollinators and beneficial insects spring is a great time to start a butterfly garden I recommend these flowers right here if you want to attract more bees and other pollinators then I recommend these flowers right here hot climate gardeners that are past their last spring frostatronachen these right here these flower bulb recommendations are General guidelines because there are some exceptions for example Dalia don’t like extreme heat but if I plant them in February they will grow and Bloom for me but die off once the extreme heat of my Florida summer arrives they are not perennials for me but they bloom during the summer and are perennial in colder climates some cultivars are more heat tolerant than others so experiment you might be pleasantly surprised by what will grow in your garden if you’re past your last spring frost date and are a hot climate Gardener like South USA zones Aiden up you can start planting tropical root crops like these right here if you’re growing your own sweet potato slips from a tuber then hurry up and get started because that whole process takes like 2 months or go online and order some slips so they’re delivered in time for planting if you’re a cold climate Gardener like Zone 7 and below it gets very difficult or just not possible to grow some of these tropical root crops Yuka for example is not ready for Harvest until about 9 to 12 months after planting and your cold winter will just kill the whole plant before you’re able to harvest you can plant things like ginger and turmeric in a big pot and just bring it indoors during the winter if you want to grow some sweet potatoes you need to plant slips as soon as your soil warms up so depending on when that occurs you might need to start growing out your own slips right now in April cold climates have a very short window to grow sweet potatoes as they require at minimum 3 months in a row of warm temperatures to grow and produce personally I don’t like to harvest my sweet potatoes until around the fifth or sixth month the longer you leave them in the ground the larger the tuber will be at Harvest Time cold climate Gard ERS can plant potatoes though plant seed potatoes into the ground or my preference is to grow them in grow bags 2 to 3 weeks before your last spring frost a if you’re a hot climate Gardener do not plant potatoes right now you can plant seed potatoes from October through November they are a winter crop for us this brings me to our next crop which is another root crop carrots if you’re a hot climate Gardener carrot season is over you should be harvesting out your carrots by this point you can start direct sewing seeds for carrots again in September the rest of you cold climate gardeners can go ahead and direct so carrot seeds if you’re past your last spring froste the next category of crops is cucumbers and melons by melons I mean like watermelons Cales that kind of thing I got to break this one down because it gets a little tricky if you passed your last spring frost a way back in January February like me here in zone 10A or March you should have direct seed or transplanted all of those things by now I say this because they take 2 to 3 months to start producing if you direct sewed seeds right now in April you will start harvesting in June when things are crazy hot and the disease and pest pressure is is insane my goal is to harvest all of my cucumbers and melons before June so if you have not direct sewed seeds for them yet you might get away with using transplants right now I also suggest you choose Asian cucumber cultivars at this point like China Jade soyun Nishiki or suong because they are more heat tolerant than traditional pickling or Market Fresh eating types of cucumbers if you’re passing your last spring frost date right now in April then you’re fine to direct so seeds or use transplants once that Frost dat has passed the rest of you which would be cold climate gardeners with last spring Frost AES in May or Beyond if that exists you can get an early start on your cucumber and melon season by sewing seeds indoors in 4in pots about 6 to 8 weeks before your last spring frost a and speaking of flowers I wanted to show you guys all of these Nims that I have growing here they’re in all sorts of different colors I didn’t even plant these here theams just start popping up around my garden if you’re a hot climate Gardener theams grow better for us fall winter and spring when the summer heat arrives they start dying off there’s nothing you can do about it but n attract a lot of beneficial insects to the Garden so that’s what got me into growing them but I just started noticing something this season that I never noticed before maybe because I didn’t have so many growing in my garden I mean they’re all over the place but I was out here during the evening and I just kind of noticed a scent that was like a mild Jasmine flower type of scent and I was like what is that because I I don’t grow jasmine flowers here in my garden and I found out it was actually the nerum so they have a mild type of fragrance and you really notice it more in the evening time when things cool down and these are edible as well they’re delicious they have a peppery flavor that’s very similar to a rugula in my opinion so these are just gorgeous on top of a salad or something like that if you want to make your dishes look a little bit more Gourmet but yeah there’s all sorts of different kinds of nestum in loads of different colors if you’ve never grown nerum before you have to give it a try okay let’s talk about my favorite thing to grow and that’s tomatoes and then we’ll talk about peppers and eggplants if you’re a hot climate Gardener you should be growing tomatoes starting in fall to be grown through winter and early spring summer heat and rains kill off my tomato plants usually by the end of June I’m Zone 10A so those of you in zones 8 and N where it’s a little less hot than me can get tomatoes to survive a little bit more longer into your summer so what I mean to say is you should be harvesting Tomatoes by now not just getting around to transplanting them and definitely not just getting around to starting them from seed you might get away with transplanting a decent sized hybrid cherry tomato or Everglades tomatoes because they tolerate the heat better but that’s it plant to sew seeds indoors in July to transplant in September if you’re not past your last spring Frost eight then you can sew tomato seeds indoors 6 to 12 weeks before your last spring frost a I highly recommend use some kind of additional light source because tomato seedlings need lots of light to grow properly I used 5,000 Kelvin or higher shop lights for many years and my tomato seedlings were ready to transplant in about 10 to 12 weeks last season was the first time I switched to official grow lights and my tomato seedlings were ready in 6 weeks that’s a huge difference so if you don’t have 10 to 12 weeks until your last spring frost date then I highly recommend you get some official grow lights to speed this up and get them ready in half the time I’m using Mars Hydro 3×3 grow lights that I got from Amazon which I will link below in the description I’m not sponsored by them or anything I purchased these lights with my own money so it is an honest recommendation based on actual results that I get in my garden now let’s discuss peppers and eggplants these things take forever to grow and get to a decent transplant size even when using grow lights they take around 3 months or so so if you don’t have 3 months before your last spring froste then get some transplants and plant them outside once all danger of Frost has passed peppers and eggplants get stunted in growth and basically stall out when exposed to cold temperatures like 65° F and Below until then keep the plants nice and warm in a greenhouse or indoors over heat mats my goal is to transplant peppers and eggplants in March so I’m harvesting in May and June after that it usually gets so hot the plants stop producing they start growing and producing again and fall once the temperatures Drop The Only Exception is hot peppers those things keep growing straight through the heat they definitely have higher heat disease and pest tolerances than sweet peppers moving on to the next crop asparagus once you’re past through last spring froste you can plant asparagus crowns I highly recommend you purchase 2-year-old crowns so you start harvesting sooner rather than later most people say you can’t Harvest them for at least 2 years this is to allow the root systems to grow and get very large a larger root system means that plant will produce more asparagus Spears this is generally true but personally I start harvesting them if the plant is sending up Spears that are as thick as my fingers that’s a pretty good indicator that the root system underneath the ground is pretty robust I’ve been successful growing asparagus in my zone 10A Garden I can’t say for sure if they will grow well in hotter climates like Zone 10B or 11 or 12 if you’re in those zones and have successfully grown asparagus please comment below I’m curious how much heat they can take you can also grow asparagus from seeds right now in April they germinate and grow pretty easy I like to grow them in Solo cups and once they get big enough pot that up into 1gallon containers once they out grow the one gallon container I transplant them this whole process can take like 6 months they’re easy to start from seed but it just takes a while up next we have some tropical heat loving crops like these right here I lump all of these plants together because they require warmth to germinate grow quickly and get to Harvest Time hot climate gardeners can start sewing seeds indoors direct sew seeds or transplant them once all danger of Frost has passed cold climate gardeners will have to sew seeds indoors to get a head start on the season as all of these things require a long warm growing season before they are ready for Harvest except okra which starts producing in like 2 and 1 half to 3 months luffa takes 5 to 6 months before you harvest your first completely dried out luffa sponge if you harvest them while they’re still green then maybe you’ll start harvesting at 4 months MinGa and pigeon peas Take 6 months or more Roselle should be planted as soon as all danger of Frost has passed and it won’t start producing until the daylight flers have decreased in fall this plant is triggered to start flowering and producing when that happens for me that’s like in October I say all of this to put it into perspective for cold climate gardeners you might not have 4 to 6 months of a warm season to grow these things and harvest you will have to calculate to see if it’s possible for you and I just have a question for you more experienced greenstock gardeners have you successfully grown indeterminate beef steak tomatoes in one of these I’m growing a bunch of micro dwarf and dwarf cultivars which I know they’ll be fine in this because the dwarf varieties get up to around 3 ft at most and then these micro dwarfs are like 1 ft so I know they’re fine in here they don’t have very big root systems and they’ll fit in this green stock Garden Tower okay and grow for me however have you tried growing indeterminates because I’m in Florida my tomato season is like 9 months in a row by the end of my season some of them have 15 20 25t long Vines unless I cut them all down so I really don’t know how you would grow something like that in one of these and I’m pretty sure their root systems are pretty big definitely much bigger than this container here so I’m just asking maybe somebody has a great idea or technique of how to do that so if you’ve been successful growing indeterminate beef steaks in here let me know in the comments tag me in photos on social media whatever you got to do on to the next category of edible things fruiting trees and plants once you’re past your last spring froste you can start planting these things into the garden I absolutely love my fruit trees I try to plan and select fruit trees in such a way that there is something that can be harvested at any month out of the Year growing perennial fruit trees and plants along with your favorite annual veggie crops is super important you should not be totally reliant on annual veggie crops only for one annual veggie crops are much harder to grow and are more susceptible to pests and diseases than perennial native edible fruit trees and plants this is a very smart strategy to help ensure food Security in case you have a crop failure and to just be more self-sufficient now I know some of you don’t have Garden space to plant a whole fruit tree like if you’re gardening on a balcony for example but I bet a lot of you with smaller backyards like me think you don’t have space space for a fruit tree so let me show you how close you can plant them I plant my fruit trees 6 to 8 ft apart they are growing great and I get tons of production definitely enough for my household needs the secret is to choose dwarf cultivars and to heavily prune them my backyard is way too small for a full-size 35t tall mango tree but it can’t fit a DW variety like a Cary mango tree which only gets 15 ft at maturity and the other secret is that you have to heavily prune your fruit trees down to a manageable height I don’t let my fruit trees go beyond 12T or so because then it’s very difficult for me to reach up to the top to harvest everything and a lot of the fruit would go to waste commercial Farms have machinery and equipment to harvest fruit that is way up high I don’t have that so I keep these trees very short a lot of the newer cultivars are self-fertile too meaning that you just need one tree to get production not a whole Orchard and you can also grow a lot of them in large containers too just saying so take a look at your backyard right now do you have space to plant some fruit trees now that I showed you how close they can be if so then I recommend these fruit trees and plants right here and actually the first five in this list are probably the easiest that I recommend especially if you’re just getting into planting fruit trees and plants right here I have two ly trees they’re probably like 4T apart I’ve got two moringo trees an Elderberry and then a Hos avocado and a brogen avocado all in this tiny space there are a lot of fruiting type trees and plants to choose from and some of them are obviously tropical trees that won’t survive in colder climates so what I suggest is that you go to a local Fruit Tree Nursery not a Big Box store and review the selection that they have local nurseries will carry the types of fru and trees and plants that will actually produce in your area and they should be cultivars that are cold hearty enough for your area which is important so you don’t have to worry about your winter cold killing your fruit trees and another fruit that can be planted this month in April for cold climate gardeners only like Zone 7 and below is strawberries strawberries are a spring and summer crop for you so plant strawberry crowns as soon as your last spring frosted has passed and the ground is workable hot climate gardeners with mild Winters no snow we grow strawberries from fall through spring so it is too late for us but plan on planting strawberry crowns again in October just to show you some more fruit trees that I have in my tiny backyard right here is the Cary mango this is a dwarf cultivar I absolutely love this variety mangoes that it produces are like fiberless so it’s super creamy almost like a fla like texture and very honey sweet this is the tree that changed my opinion because I have to admit I did not like mangoes before I started growing this particular variety and then about 8 ft away is a Florida Prince Peach Tree I love Stone fruits they’re so easy to grow and once the trees are mature they produce so much for you so I made sure to get myself a good peach tree and if you’ve never had a tree ripened Peach you’re in for a real treat because the ones you buy at the grocery store are really hard and crunchy that is not how a peach is supposed to be when I harvest these things off the tree they’re juicy and they’re very soft not in a bad way but just totally different than the peaches you buy at the grocery store and then another 8 ft away is a sun racer nectarine same thing as the peaches the tree ripen nectarines are amazing as well I think they tap out at around 15 ft as well but again I kind of keep everything trimmed down to a height that is easy for me to get to and harvest everything and I’m just going to address this right now because I’m sure the comment section is going to go crazy for the fact that my trees are right next to my privacy fence they’re fine they’re all dwarf trees they’re not going to grow into some big like Oak or something that will mess up my fence they have been here for probably 4 years now this is as big as they’re going to get and if they start getting out of control for some reason I just cut the branches off and away from the fence so far it’s been fine I want to show you guys my kill patch really quick I have kill growing all around my garden but this patch right here is a bunch of lado types which is my absolute favorite this one right here is called Black Magic this one is dazzling blue and this one is just the regular lado also goes by the names of dinosaur or kale or black tuskin kale this is by far my favorite type of kale especially if you’re a hot climate Gardener these plants tolerate the heat more than any other type of kale that I grow the other KES tend to die off in my garden by the time March rolls around it’s just getting way too hot but these if planted in a spot that gets some afternoon shade will survive for a couple years I actually had one that survived over 2 years right here in this spot because it gets afternoon shade and it survived two hurricanes too just insane that thing was taller than I was so that is why I absolutely love lado type KES and I grow a bunch of them in my garden all right everyone hopefully that gave you a lot of ideas for things you need to start growing right now lastly let’s discuss important Garden task tips and reminders for the month of April my first tip is managing the pests this depends on the type of insect if it’s a chewing insect like worms or caterpillars that eat leaves use BT which I mentioned earlier in this video some worms are just a little tougher than most like the corn earworm so I use spinosad for those instead if you’re dealing with a sucking insect like aphids and spidermites or soft bodied insects like white flies then you spin aad neem oil or organic insecticidal soap these things kill soft bodied insects on contact if you’re dealing with a sucking insect that has a hard shell or armor so to speak like stink bugs squash bugs or Leaf footed bugs you’re going to have to manually remove them off your plants wear some gloves and drop them into a bucket of soapy water or vacuum them up with a hand vacuum their hard shells protect them against sprays spinosad will kill their nymphs which are red and black in color because they don’t have their hard shells yet scale is another type of sucking insect with a hard shell there are lots of different types of scale some have smooth black shiny exteriors others are more round and brown in color and another type I’ve seen is called Barnacle scale they’re gray or white with a bumpy shell that looks just like Barnacles scale sucks the juices out of your plants and in large numbers can kill it to kill scale you need to smother them out by spraying with several applications of horticultural oil if it gets really bad I suggest using as a mat my next set of tips has to do with disease management i garden organically for the most part thanks to these practices number one clean out any old dead and decaying leaves and debris they are host for the pathogens that cause disease and they attract pest number two vertical garden as much as possible this picks the plants up off the ground making it harder for pests to get on them and opens the plants up to better air flow so leaves dry faster and lastly just another reminder to spray with one cup of hydrogen peroxide per gallon of water to treat all sorts of leaf diseases is usually I will spray every 5 to 7 days until I start to notice that disease go away and if it rains a lot like it does here in Florida then you know the diseases are about to get out of control so monitor extra closely and spray if needed the next reminder is that the heat is coming if you want to grow things under shade cloth it’s time to start thinking about building shade cloth structures and having all the supplies for that in place at home I know some of you are still under snow even in April so you’re probably like what is she talking about but it is very quickly going to be unbearably hot for some of us personally I have not tried using shade cloth yet because to be honest I’m just too lazy to go ahead and install all of that stuff instead I strategically place certain plants around the garden like I plant my kale in a spot that gets Bright Morning Sun with afternoon shade so it’s fine during the summer or I plant herbs and peppers in a container or grow bag so I can move them into a more shady spot I also have a lot of things growing in greenstock Garden Towers in a spot that gets afternoon shade or I just open up my patio umbrella which creates the shade I don’t deny that shade cloth works I just don’t want to put in all the work of installing it if any of you have easy shadecloth setups tag me in your pictures on social media just to send me some ideas well that’s it for April I hope you all like this list I put together and it helps you with your spring and summer Gardens if I missed any seed or plant ideas feel free to drop a comment below if you enjoyed this video a big thumbs up would mean a lot to me and helps out my channel more than you know thanks for watching and happy gardening for