Mitch Baker: I am Mitch Baker with American Plant and we're talking about April Gardening Tips. Now we want to talk about Vegetable Gardens. This is the time of the year when we can be planting our cool season vegetables, so that would include all of the lettuces, and spinach, mustard, kale, cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts these are all cool season vegetables that will be productive until the weather turns hot and then it's time to put in your hot season vegetables.

Don't forget about strawberries this also the time of the year when you can plant some strawberry plants. So, save some space in the garden for them as well. You want to start by turning over the soil. If you didn't get your garden prepared at the end of the season last year, now would be the time to turn the soil over. Turning the soil over like that disrupts all of these fungal and bacterial colonies that have developed over the winter, but by adding organic matter to the soil and a bit of organic fertilizer at the same time that recovery is rapid. So, go ahead and do that at this time.

Now, if you start turning the soil over with a spade a you discover that's its really wet and soggy, I would stop right there. You don't want to be working this soil when it's too wet. It tends to clump and compact and we actually cause more damage to the soil. It would be better to wait a few days until temperature is warm and the soil begins to dry out a bit, then go back to working that soil and working that organic matter into the soil.

Once you've got your soil amended, broken up, very small particles like that, break it out smooth and you can go ahead and start tucking in your cool season vegetables. And remember, these can be fairly tightly packed because it's a short season, you want to maximize the space, you get the greatest yield out of that vegetable garden.

And you can also do this in pots or containers if you lack the space in your garden or don't have the sun right in the garden. Pick a sunny spot, plant out some big pots or containers with some lettuce, these cool season vegetables do very well in containers and you'll be amazed at the yield you can get out of just a few pots in your garden.

So those are all tips for the Vegetable Garden. Next. we are going to talk about caring for our lawn.