By Ira Wallace of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and the author of The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Southeast and Grow Great Vegetables in Virginia
April is the month to start your succession plantings of beets, lettuce and carrots every 2 weeks. These small succession plantings let you have a steady supply of vegetables fresh for the table all season. Late April is a good time to finish hardening off your cabbages, broccoli and other brassicas started last month and transplant them outdoors. They thrive with compost, a good organic mulch, and row cover against the frost.
Hill your early potatoes when plants are eight inches high, and again two weeks later. Watch out for potato beetles – handpick. Don’t forget to buy more seed potatoes for a second June planting, while you can. Store them in a cool dark place until you are ready to plant them. This late planting sometimes yields less than your tradition St Patrick’s Day planting but they store exceptionally well for having your own homegrown potatoes to eat until next spring.
When the weather is warm enough (soil temp is over 65°) then sow corn and transplant a few early tomatoes such as Glacier or Sophie’s Choice under row cover. There is still time to start more tomatoes from seed indoors. You can also start watermelons, cucumber, and cantaloupe in soil blocks or paper pots to get a head start on these heat loving crops.
We are still eating sweet potatoes from last summer’s crop. They are really an amazing crop that can be stored at room temperature for almost a year. So don’t forget to order some slips now so you will have them in time for planting when May rolls around. our growers at Slade Farm start slips in the greenhouse and in covered beds outside from the best of last year’s crop. they grow many varieties, from traditional orange-fleshed Beauregarde to white-fleshed O’Henry or sweet dry white fleshed red skinned Japanese Red, If you haven’t grown sweet potatoes before, Southern Exposure’s Sweet Potato Growing guide will tell you how.
Harvest greens, enjoy abundant salad greens, savor asparagus, and prepare to weed.
