“Out with the old, in with the new…” April saw an end to the winter crops and a beautiful start to new spring seedlings, and blossoms in abundance. There was a lot to write about this month in my garden journal.
Journal Entries April 2021.
1st Week of April
The winter crop of cabbages is just about done. It’s been dry a dry start to spring, and they are thirsty plants. This April is cooler than last year, not too many days in the 90° range yet, so the cabbages have had extra time to fill out nicely.
The winter slicing/canning tomatoes are just about done. I pulled out several plants that were no longer producing.
The new tomatoes that I recently planted are already over two feet tall and several are starting to blossom.
Flea beetles found one of the tomato plants overnight. I quickly sprayed the one plant with insecticidal soap, as well as it’s neighbors as a preventative. I try to use as few chemicals as possible, but those beetles had eaten almost half the plant, so I had to intervene.
I’m trying a product recommended for organic gardening called Natria insecticidal Soap. So far, it has worked great. I’ve been very careful where I spray the product because it will harm beneficial insects as well. If you want to dig deeper into this subject, gardenfundamentals.com has a great article about proper use of insecticidal soap.
The Seminole pumpkins I had planted last month are growing fast. I think their roots found the organic fertilizer and compost I had worked into the ground just before I planted them. I have never grown these before, and I’m enjoying their dark green leaves with white veining.
The blackberries have so many blossoms this year! I counted over 50 the first week of April. They are one of my favorite fruits.
The green bell peppers, jalapenos, 3 pineapples, and many self-seeded flowers from last year are also blossoming.
2nd Week of April
I’m still watering the garden every other day, and the potted plants every day. I keep my eye on the sky (and a weather app), hoping for rain soon. We’ve used up almost all of our collected rain water for the seedlings and the potted vegetable plants. The less I use our city’s chlorinated water, the better.
April 10th, we bought some local sweet corn from a roadside vendor. Corn was just coming into season. I froze 3 one-quart bags for later, and we had two meals with fresh corn on the cob. We can’t grow everything in our garden that we like to eat, so we help out the local growers by purchasing their produce. Besides, in-season and local is the best flavor!
April 11th, we finally got some decent rain in the form of a huge thunderstorm. Mike and I were able to refill all of our rainwater containers. It was a cold storm – we got hail! Many gardeners in our area got hail damage. Thankfully, we had no damage.
I had time to can 6 quarts and a pint of stewed tomatoes. I had saved most of our winter tomatoes in the freezer. A gallon freezer bag of tomatoes makes about 2 quarts of stewed tomatoes. I had 5 ½ bags left over. Those will also be for stewed tomatoes. Canned stewed tomatoes are great for making chili and tomato-based casseroles.
April 14th was National Gardening Day. I created a detailed list of what was currently growing on our homestead. I counted 8 types of traditional fruits, 4 fruits traditionally grown as vegetables, 6 types of vegetables, 3 types of herbs, 3 types of palms, and 15 types of ornamental flowers and plants. Not bad, I think for a 40’ X 110’ size back yard with a cement patio and swimming pool!
I plant to make a National Gardening Day List a tradition every year. It will be a fun way to note how I garden throughout the years.
3rd Week of April
Mike and I always enjoy evening walks this time of year… not too cold, not too hot and humid. We also enjoy seeing the bountiful fruits and flowers our neighbors grow in their yards.
This third week of April, was bursting with new growth. Some of the amazing flora we saw included:
- Lychee tree – It was past the blossoming stage and the fruit was just starting to grow.
- Pineapples – Many people have pineapples growing in their flower beds. I saw fruit almost ready to pick as well as new fruit just starting to blossom.
- Magnolias – Most were budding, some were opening up and I could smell their sweet magnolia scent.
- Mango trees – They are ending their blossoming and setting fruit.
- Papaya – Many had large fruit already.
- Loquats – They are done producing fruit for the season, only a few had old fruit still hanging on the branches.
- Gorgeous flowers – There are so many flowers growing in our neighborhood! Bougainvillea, hibiscus, ixora, firespike, jasmine, various lilies, and so many more!
All of my neighbor’s plants inspire me to try new things in my own flower beds and garden.
April 22nd was Earth Day. Check out my Earth Day 2021 post for year-round inspiration for taking care of the environment of this blue marble that we all live on.
4th Week of April
The last weekend of April started off with a garden-wide clean-up. You can read about some of my favorite gardening tools in my post: My 6 Favorite Gardening Tools.
I cut off every head of cabbage, pulled the plants out, and left them lying upside down in the garden to rot-in-place. This practice is commonly referred to as “chop-and-drop” mulching. As the leaves and roots decompose, all of the nutrients the cabbages pulled from the soil will eventually rot down and go back from where they came.
Next, I trimmed up the branches on the tomato plants to about 8-10 inches above the ground. Some of the leaves near the ground were already showing signs of early blight. Keeping the leaves dry, and leaving plenty of air flow will help the plants ward off diseases and pests.
I picked 16 lima bean pods that had dried on the vine. I saved the seeds to plant next winter.
Mike weeded almost the entire garden himself while I was tending to the other tasks. Then he cut the lawn, and we dumped the grass and leaf mixture from the lawnmower bag into the compost pile along with paper from the office paper shredder. If you’re new to composting, check out my Composting 101 post.
New growth I noticed in the garden this week included:
- All varieties of tomatoes now have small fruits on them.
- Green bush beans and pole beans have blossoms and small fruits.
- Some of the dragon fruit cacti (pitaya) are getting top-heavy, so I tied them to small posts (bamboo skewers).
Final Thoughts
April was an exciting and busy month in the garden. I’m looking forward to all of the fresh produce the next few months.
I learned a lot last year, when I started gardening in Central Florida. Check out what I learned during last year’s gardening season in my April 2020 Garden Journal post.
Thank you for following my gardening journey. I hope I’ve inspired you to try new things in your own garden.
Until next month… Happy Gardening!
Alisa