Planting Your April Vegetable Garden

If you’re thinking of planting a vegetable garden this season, it’s not too late to start! April is the perfect month in New Jersey for planting a wide variety of vegetables, so think about where you want to place your backyard veggie garden while Patch shares some garden know-how.

Early April in the Garden State is the ideal time for planting leafy greens, such as spinach, lettuce, endive, cabbage and chard because these vegetables can be planted up to 6 weeks before the last frost (which, in New Jersey, is typically April 1).

For spinach, make sure you use a good compost mix and sow the seeds directly into the ground. When the spinach begins to sprout in about a month, then you can add some more composted soil.

Lettuce is extremely easy to plant, all you need to do is evenly sprinkle the seeds over some fertilized, loose soil. Then, cover the lettuce seeds with a light layer of more soil. Be sure your lettuce garden is not in direct sunlight, which may wither the plant. Instead, plant the lettuce in a partially-shaded portion of your yard.

Late April in New Jersey is the best time to plant your root and tuber vegetables, such as beets, carrots, turnips, and potatoes because they taste and grow better if they are planted before the air becomes too hot. Root vegetables can be planted directly into the soil and grow best in deep, loose soil that is not very acidic.

Carrots will be ready for harvest in three months, beets and turnips will be ready in about two months, and potatoes take between three and five months before they are ready for harvest.

So throw on your gardening gear and get your backyard vegetable garden primed for planting - before May arrives and it's time to begin planting a whole new slew of vegetables!

Here is a list of Freehold businesses where you can buy the supplies you need to get started: