April is the time to prepare garden beds...

It's simple to get your garden beds ready for the new growing season.

• First, remove all of last year’s dead plants and debris. Dispose of dead plants and new weeds in a compost pile, if you have one. This is a great way to recycle organic material back into your beds and keep waste out of the landfill.
• Rake the area smooth and remove any material which is 1-inch or larger.
• Finally, add a layer of compost, decomposed horse or cow manure, or leaf mold. These organic materials enrich the soil and help to improve the nutrients available for your vegetables.

... plant cool weather crops...

Early April is a great time to plant cool weather bedding plants such as cabbage, kale, broccoli, collards, and brussels sprout. It's also a good time to plant onion sets and directly sow seeds for radishes, carrots, leaf lettuces, beets, and turnips. The seeds for these cool weather plants can also be sown again in the fall for an early winter harvest. 

All of the vegetables mentioned above enjoy cool weather, but be prepared to cover them if an extended or hard freeze is forecast. Frost blankets, sheets, and paper bags work well. Plastic is only recommended if it does not lay against the leaves. You can also use overturned buckets to protect plants. Be sure to remove coverings from plants if the weather warms throughout the day, so plants are not damaged by overheating.

... and start summer vegetables and herbs.

Start your summer vegetables and herbs from seed now through mid April. Sow them in pots or cell packs according to the seed packet directions and place the containers in a sunny location or use a seed warming mat to keep the soil warm. Once the seeds sprout, protect the young plants from cold temperatures by keeping them indoors until temperatures are consistently above 40 degrees.

It's best to wait to plant these seedlings until after the danger of frost has passed (which in general is mid-May for SW Ohio). Eager to get started? Go ahead and take your chances with an early planting, but be ready to cover and uncover the young plants multiple times.

2022 Vegetable Planning Calendar

The Old Farmer’s Almanac has a great planning tool to help you know the earliest dates to plant spring vegetables based on the average frost dates for any Zip Code. LEARN MORE...

Sowing Seeds for the Garden

A wide variety of vegetable, herb, and flower seeds, from tomatoes and squash to basil and marigolds, were sown for the garden on the evening of March 16. These containers will be moved to a green house for the seeds to germinate and grow. In mid-May, when the danger of frost has past, the plants will be planted in the Shared Harvest Bed and in Guest Gardener's adopted beds. Watch for information in the next Garden Newsletter about planting workdays.

Help create a NEW Hügelkultur Bed

In the coming month, we will be adding a very special new bed to our Community Harvest Garden area. This bed will be in the shape of a spiral as a nod to the great Creator of all things who included many spirals in his own designs. In our spiral shaped garden bed we will be using a centuries old German technique called Hügelkultur (pronounced Hoo-gul-culture). In Hügelkultur, soil is mounded on top of rotten logs and plant debris which are utilized to hold moisture and enrich the soil. Plants love Hügelkultur beds!

LEARN MORE...

The exact date(s) in April for creating the bed have not been decided yet because there needs to be several days of dry weather prior to working the soil. Please contact Donna if you would like to help create our spiral Hügelkultur bed and she will let you know when work will take place. Bring a shovel, small pruning saw, and gardening gloves, if you have them. Or just come to stack logs and have fun.  

Christ the King’s Prairie Garden is a place of beauty, healing, and abundant life. It was recently featured on the cover of Living Lutheran magazine. Each spring the dead stalks of last year’s grass and flowers are pruned away to make room for this year’s blooms. This is a pleasant and relaxing job done over a period of weeks. It’s now time to start pruning. Please contact Donna if you would like to help. Days and times are flexible. All that is needed is pruning shears (or a sickle) and gardening gloves.

The Community Harvest Garden is located at

Christ the King Lutheran Church

7393 Dimmick Road, West Chester, Ohio