A Common Life
Welcome to A Common Life where Morgan and Taylor offer month-by-month gardening advice to help your garden thrive. We also share our personal journey in seasonal living, aiming to foster a deeper connection with others, nature, and our Creator. Our hope is to encourage and equip others who are on a similar journey and to provide a space for community around these ideals.
A Common Life
Looking ahead to April! Frost Dates, Garden Install How-To, Toad Choruses, and More!
"Get your green thumbs ready to transform knowledge into a flourishing garden! Join Morgan and me as we delve into the April soil, sharing secrets to dodge the frost's final jab and pinpoint the perfect moment to plant tomatoes and their warm-season friends. We'll navigate the frosty intricacies of Huntsville versus Owens Crossroads, warming up to the critical role soil temperature plays in your garden's performance. Expect a row-by-row guide on how to invite a cascade of beans, cucumbers, squash, and even the ambitious sprawl of watermelons and sweet corn to your patch. And for those with a competitive streak, we'll reveal methods to outsmart garden gluttons waiting to feast on your hard work.
Our conversation blossoms further as we tackle the nuts and bolts of garden establishment, from sun chasing to wrangling stormwater and nurturing your soil. Rest assured, I haven't forgotten to sprinkle in tales from my own backyard escapades – like the strawberry-induced happiness and a family quiz night that blooms into a garden of laughter. We don't just scratch the surface; we dig deep with advice on choosing between the embrace of in-ground planting or the elevation of raised beds. Whether you're armed with a stirrup hoe or still brushing the dirt off your gardening gloves, Morgan and I are here to help you plant the seeds of a bountiful April garden."
Sometimes ... Jenkins (our AI assistant) nails the description. Other times... It's just funny.
Mentioned:
Tools for the no-till garden are stirrup hoe, garden fork, and a rake. Start there!
Find us Elsewhere:
Instagram - @_ACommonLife - Morgan
Community Newsletter - The Common
Twitter (X) - @_ACommonLife
Twitter - @Taylor__Myers
LinkedIn - Taylor Myers
DM us on the Socials or email us at Taylor@acommonlife.co
Music on the podcast was composed by Kevin Dailey. The artist is Garden Friend. The track is the instrumental version of “On a Cloud”
Hey everybody, welcome to a common life podcast. I am here with my beautiful bride Morgan.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody.
Speaker 1:And in this episode we're going to be talking about April and all the good things happening in April.
Speaker 2:All right, let's do it. Let's do it.
Speaker 1:Okay, we are just. You know, we're running into this thing, fuming, coming in hot, coming in hot, Coming in hot, coming in hot. And you know what is going to be hot. Our last frost date, april. It's going to happen. No more frost.
Speaker 1:You know, somebody texted us today and said that the Farmer's Almanac says that March 30th is the last frost date for Huntsville. But Owens Crossroads, which is just outside of Huntsville, they said it was April 10th. So she was like what do you do? Like what do you think? Do you think I should plant my tomatoes now? She's ready to get them out, she's ready to get them out. And I said I get tired of babying the tomato plants as well and I'm so eager to put them out there. But until the soil warms up, you know, and it starts getting consistently 70 degree days, the tomatoes aren't going to grow well anyways, even if we don't get a hard frost. So your best bet is to keep babying your plants if you grew them yourself, if you're going to buy them from a store just wait until April 10th to the 15th.
Speaker 1:Generally speaking, april 15th in zone 7 is the date. April 15th is kind of the date. April 15th is kind of the date. If you live in the deep south, like South Alabama, south Georgia, you know that area is going to be early April, late March. They've probably already had their last frost. But if you're in North Alabama, tennessee, kentucky, range you need to wait. Yeah, wait until the middle of April. To wait, yeah, wait until the middle of April. But we are going to be planting tomatoes in April, guys, it is time to get your hands in the dirt. If you've been waiting, you will be waiting no longer. April it's here, guys. Can you believe it?
Speaker 2:I'm ready for it. I am ready for it too. Too, it's really cold still in the mornings it is still for me I wake up in the morning and I'm like it's cold it is but we're getting there april april we are, and in late april you're going to be direct seeding beans cucumbers, squash, cantaloupe, watermelon people.
Speaker 1:We're getting ready to plant watermelon.
Speaker 2:Late April.
Speaker 1:Late April.
Speaker 2:Okay. So you're direct seeding all those things, sweet corn, I want to plant all those things.
Speaker 1:Well, we have a pretty small garden.
Speaker 2:We need to find a place our kids. Every single year when we get the seed catalog, basically all they want to do is corn and watermelons and we're always like, okay, we never plant what you're scared of doing watermelons you were not scared of doing water you have never planted a watermelon.
Speaker 1:They just take up the entire garden. We have a small garden. Well, let's Alright by golly, we're gonna plant some watermelon.
Speaker 2:And corn We'll plant like two. And corn, I don't know.
Speaker 1:To be. It's who knows folks Better stay tuned.
Speaker 2:Can we plant them where the kids have said their garden's going to be?
Speaker 1:The problem is Bunnies, bunnies, dogs, squirrels, field mice.
Speaker 2:We don't have field mice.
Speaker 1:They eat your plants.
Speaker 2:Well then, crows, yeah, crows, yeah, yeah, but you can't do anything about crows you have to befriend them yeah, but like you plant scare crows.
Speaker 1:I know crows. There's nothing you can really do about crows. They would eat the stuff in our garden too yeah, that's what I'm saying, I know, I know, okay, uh, you're also going to be transplanting your tomatoes, peppers, basil, eggplant and april, everybody we're planting transplants it's busy. It's a busy time so when you say april, I can't believe it. It's's here, april. We're going to be planting tomatoes again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, april's kind of like jump in, plant everything April and May.
Speaker 1:If you forget to plant some of these things in April, you can still plant them in May. You'll be good Because, honestly, you plant your tomatoes April 10th. I plant mine on May 1st. Come the end of June they're going to be about the same size because of the soil temperature, Okay, but by April 10th I am done baiting my tomatoes. Well, what if you're?
Speaker 2:succession planting. Like what if you want tomatoes at the beginning of summer, but then you also want them at the end of summer? When's the last time you'd want to put your tomatoes in?
Speaker 1:Well, if you plant an indeterminate tomato, they're going to be producing until they die from the frost that comes in November, october. Indeterminate tomatoes just means their growth ending, their length or their growth is indetermined. They're going to keep growing and keep growing. Determinants, which are mainly the ones that you're going to buy at stores. Determinants are their growth is determined, meaning they're going to grow to a certain size, they're going to stop growing and they're going to put on a bunch of fruit all at once. We mainly grow indeterminants and they grow all year. So if you're going to grow a determinate tomato which it'll say on the seed packet you'll see it It'll say determinate Then you need to plant some in April or May and then plant again in late June for succession. Okay, harvests, successional harvests. Okay, you can plant your sweet potato slips in late April. Sweet potato slips.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, did we plant those? No, we need to do that, no.
Speaker 1:Our garden is too small for sweet potatoes. They take over. When we move to the farm, we can have All these things. Yes, when we move to the farm, we can have all these things. Yes, also, um, I went to costco. We do shop at costco some, and they had some big old fruit trees if you're gonna plant they look good yeah, they looked fine.
Speaker 1:They look good. They were huge, bare root. Um, I do. There's a couple of our fruit trees that died. I think I am going to get they look good. They were huge, bare root. There's a couple of our fruit trees that died. I think I am going to get a couple and replace them just to see how they do. Now, if you're going to plant trees or shrubs right now, you have to make sure you water them really really well throughout the summer, because their roots it's going to take a while. They're going to have to go through a little shock when you put them in the ground and it's going to take them a while to get established, and so you've got to make sure they are really watered deeply, routinely throughout the summer. If you're planting trees and shrubs now and you're going to want to mulch them really heavily, that will help preserve moisture. You can also plant blackberries, raspberries and blueberries now. Plant them, let's go.
Speaker 2:I think we're going to get some blueberries this year. It's game time. What year are we on? We haven't gotten blueberries yet. I think we're on year three Blueberries and blackberries are the soil back there?
Speaker 1:I don't know. They just don't grow. It's pitiful.
Speaker 2:But they look good right now. They've got leaves, they do.
Speaker 1:And then they just don't grow. I don't know. I don't know people. Okay, it's a part of my thumb that has turned gray. No, I know no.
Speaker 2:It's the soil.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just outside of my focus. One day I can have some confidence in talking to people about blackberries, raspberries and blueberries, but right now it's just like don't be discouraged, plant them.
Speaker 2:Mulch them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, put compost around them and do that in April.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And if you don't have a garden, folks, April is the month to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's where all the excitement is. So you want to talk about seasonal living.
Speaker 1:You want to talk about a seasonal activity Gardening.
Speaker 2:Why would people be listening to this?
Speaker 1:A lot of people might listen to this that just love the sound of our voice and don't have a garden. And if that's you and you're like I'm really wanting to put in a garden, let me tell you some key considerations and I'm going to simplify this down for you and you're going I'm really wanting to put in a garden, let me tell you some key considerations and I'm going to simplify this down for you. And you're going to have a garden. Are you ready? The first thing you got to do is think about the sun. So you're just going to find which way is facing north and whichever way is north, that's where the shadows are going to go. So in your yard, once you find north, now you know which way the shadows are going to go. So in your yard, once you find north, now you know which way the shadows are going to be going generally, and you're going to want to then put your garden on the south side, the southern side of your house. If that's your front yard, then you got to pick a side of your yard. You got to pick in somewhere in the backyard that is going to be outside the shadow of your house and ideally outside of the shadow of some tree. Okay, so you want to be on the Southern side of tall structures in your yard. Now, once you figure that out, then you have to think about stormwater. So first is sun, second is stormwater. Where's stormwater going to be running? Whenever you get a big gully washer, where is that stormwater going to be filtering across your property? Where is it going to pull up? You don't want to put your garden there. After thinking about the sun and the storm, water is the soil, which isn't really that important because you're going to amend it and so don't worry too much about the soil. We're going to simplify this thing. Just don't worry about the soil, it'll be just fine.
Speaker 1:The fourth thing you're going to think about is the structure. Are you going to go in ground or above ground? To simplify things, I say just do it in ground. I say, do this, get your weed whacker, go out there and weed whack the grass and the weeds or whatever, all the way down to the ground. Put some compost down on top of it, put some peat moss down on top of it and mulch on top of that and then plant directly into the compost and peat mixture. Pull the mulch back and plant directly into the compost peat mixture, and if you get down into the original ground, that's great, that's fine. Okay, now here's the caveat. You are going to need some tools. You're going to need a stirrup hoe for weeding. You are going to need some tools. You're going to need a stirrup hoe for weeding. You're going to need a garden fork to aerate your soil and, lastly, you're going to need a yard rake to move the mulch around, and you're going to want to heavily, heavily mulch.
Speaker 2:Yeah. All right, two to three inches of mulch, that's going to keep your weeds down, put a link to those things you just said. Okay of mulch.
Speaker 1:That's going to keep your weeds down. Put a link to those things you just said. Okay, I'll put a link to the newsletter. I put all of this in the newsletter. And here is a disclaimer. Most people have Bermuda grass in their yard. If you have Bermuda grass in your, if you have fescue, just weed, whack it down. I love fescue. If you have a Bermuda grass yard, which a lot of people do, you can't do what I just said, because Bermuda grass will take over. It'll be a mess.
Speaker 2:You need to do a raised bed, you say.
Speaker 1:Well, bermuda grass is difficult. If you just put a raised bed in there, it won't be long before Bermuda grass grows up into it and overtakes it. So if you have a bermuda grass lawn and you don't have a garden and you want a garden, he's about to say something no, I'm just gonna say go to the show notes.
Speaker 1:You'll find my email. Email me as long as I don't have hundreds of people, I mean dozens, and have dozens. It might be a problem, but nobody ever emails me and asks me this. But I am just going to make an offer, like, if you really want one a garden and you want a garden but you have a Bermuda lawn, you can't do what I just said. Send me an email, we'll talk through it. We'll figure it out.
Speaker 2:I thought you were going to say Spray, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Generally with Bermuda, grass spraying does enter the picture, yeah, but you have to do it intentionally and you got to have some thought about it. We're not just going to go around spraying, right, all right, okay, so guess what? What Strawberries are about to?
Speaker 2:be in. It's my favorite time Favorite.
Speaker 1:Favorite, favorite fruit.
Speaker 2:Okay. Well, so the kids wanted to play this game in the car yesterday. It was called Mama Pop Quiz. They might have gotten it from Bluey, I don't know, but it was called Mama Pop Quiz and I had to come up with a question and then they had to answer it. And so one question. That was really funny. Well, I asked them questions like what's my favorite color, what's my favorite flower, what's my favorite fruit? And so they guessed. Virginia got it right and she said a strawberry. And I said, yes, but it has to be in season, like an in season strawberry, you cannot beat it. You cannot beat it there is a.
Speaker 2:God, yes, yes, oh, so yummy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when I smell roses, I think of heaven, and when I eat a vine ripe strawberry, I think of God.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's amazing, it's amazing. Okay, another question I asked like toward the end I was running out of questions. I was like, what do I like to do for fun? And they were just quiet and Wendell goes clean. And then Virginia kept like tapping her cheek and going for fun, for fun, for fun. And I was like, guys, this is so depressing. And then she ended up saying you would go to the lake with your journal and you would write in your journal and then you would sleep, and then you'd wake up and you'd write in your journal and then you would sleep, go sit in the sunshine. I'm like, yeah, that sounds really fun actually, but anyway, that's good Droppers.
Speaker 1:What do you like to do for fun?
Speaker 2:I do like to write in my journal and sit in the sunshine.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and go to the lake. Those are all fun things. Yeah, yeah, I like to laugh. I have some friends that really make me laugh. I like being around friends that make me laugh. I like to write, I like to walk, I like to go to places like bookstores, bookstores and other cities.
Speaker 1:That is fun. Yeah, I like doing that with you. Okay, and the lunar calendar is the pink moon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't know this. The notes that you wrote in here. I didn't know that.
Speaker 1:Yep, and we have some wildflower. We have some wild flocks at the farm Pops up every year. It's beautiful.
Speaker 2:It's a pink wildflower. Yeah, but then also what you said about, oh, the paschal paschal, paschal, is that how you'd say it? Paschal moon referring to the death, burial and resurrection of jesus christ.
Speaker 1:Let's go come on, yeah, this year, this april. So the moons, right, the full moons, are towards the end of the month, april 23rd, tuesday night, catch it. Some firsts to be looking for in April.
Speaker 2:First bite of a strawberry. Put it in your calendar first cannot wait, it's exciting thing.
Speaker 1:I go back through our pictures. You know when I'm like trying to find pictures and we like every yeah, every april, you just see the kids going on those strawberry pickings. Yes, it gets sweeter and sweeter. No pun intended, guys. I love what we're doing about the calendar firsts and the seasonal things because it's like they grow and they get richer. The memories and the sweetness of it just gets sweeter and sweeter the anticipation.
Speaker 1:It's really an awesome thing yeah so first strawberry, you know what I'm really looking forward to. Um no, the first toad chorus.
Speaker 2:I was gonna say you know what I mean Like when you just hear those bullfrogs, just like frogging away. Yeah, I'm excited about that.
Speaker 1:Well, I've never thought about it before until I was just thinking about, like what are some firsts, like seasonal firsts, and I don't remember where I read it, or something like.
Speaker 2:I'm like yeah, that is a thing, and it goes away and it comes back and I'm like anticipating that, that and it goes away and it comes back and I'm like anticipating that, that chorus, okay, I've noticed this spring the morning doves, just like when you're out in the yard you're outside around like five o'clock and you hear them, or in the mornings. I just love that sound.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, toads, toads, toads. We might see the first hummingbird.
Speaker 2:I haven't seen a hummingbird yet I haven't seen a hummingbird, it might happen in April?
Speaker 1:What?
Speaker 2:about. We have seen tulips already around here. We've definitely seen tulips, dogwoods, redbuds. We've seen a bunch of wildflowers.
Speaker 1:The wildflowers are basically coming out in march. Yeah, that's the month of wildflowers. Uh, butterflies haven't seen any butterflies yet I saw one at the farm, but I don't think it was a butterfly, I think it was a moth. But yeah, butterflies, uh, farmer's markets starting soon yeah in many areas farmer's markets start back in april. I know the one that we visit most frequently starts in May here, but that's exciting yeah.
Speaker 2:Stargazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean the first clear night. I think we've already had a pretty clear night, though.
Speaker 2:And Bluebell, virginia Bluebell, that's already kind of out.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's a March thing. Well, we got a lot going on in april. Guys, get out there, enjoy it, document it, take your pictures hey, one of the things we do with our pictures. Just a little hint or not hint, but tip. We have amazon photos. If you have amazon prime, you have amazon photos and that's where you can go back and go through the years. Just an extra cloud backup. Of course, you have your iCloud and then Google Photos is something you can do as well, but the search function is pretty good in there. Um, yeah, so make note of all the firsts this year, get outside garden a little bit, enjoy the sunshine, the warming weather and until next time, happy gardening, thank you.