 Hi there and welcome to the channel. So if you live in a cold climate like I do here on the Saskatchewan prairies You know that we have what I like to call kind of a subseason that often hits us Usually in April sometimes even in May. So what happens is after a long cold winter where you know, we have freezing temperatures for months and months lots of snow so then March comes and everything melts and the grass starts to turn green and the Buds on the trees are starting to come out and we get all excited that you know, it's gonna be summer soon and we start thinking about our gardens in our yards and Last weekend. It was a beautiful day with barbecuing. We brought all the patio furniture out We're set out on the deck till after dark and then just like that it hits us that subseason I like to call sprinter So this week we had about two and a half days of heavy wet snow And it just basically shut down spring for us It looked like it was the middle of winter here everything that I dragged out For my patio and for my grandson to play with was covered in snow But this is just normal. This happens to us often like I say April-May Usually not this bad some years. We don't get any moisture in the spring. So not complaining. This is awesome all of this snow is gonna melt and it's gonna soak into the ground and Everything's gonna be green. So in today's video I'm gonna show you some of the things and talk about some of the things that you can start indoors in April getting ready for your outdoor garden. So let's get to it Now we are about one month from what I consider my last frost date I usually go by my grandmother's rule of always kind of planting things out on The long weekend in May. So that's kind of what I use as my last frost date It can be a little bit sooner. You know every year you can tell if the ground's warming up a little faster If you're having a warmer spring, you can start things outdoors a little sooner But I like to use that third week in May as kind of my benchmark for Safely putting most of my plants outside. So today I am going to be starting a variety of different flowers and a few herbs. These are what I consider to be my companion Plants that I like to plant around in my vegetable garden. So they Bring in the pollinators. They also help to tear some of the pests different flowers, different herbs provide different types of protection to your vegetable garden and benefits to your garden. So I always like to get those started These are ones that they usually recommend to start four to six weeks indoors before putting outside So I'm kind of following that rule as far as what I'm planting So some of the things that I like to put out into my garden include sunflowers, sweet peas, nasturtiums, parsley, dill Cosmos and zinnias and marigolds. I'm going to be doing something a little different With the parsley and dill. So stay tuned for that. I'm going to show you how I'm going to set these up differently So as you see here, I got one of these potting mats. This is something I don't know why I haven't bought sooner But I just set it up here for the first time and I can see that it's going to be very helpful to help Contain all the dirt, especially when you are filling in, you know, little seedling trays Which I'm usually doing downstairs in my basement and I'm getting dirt everywhere This is going to be a great thing to have And I will leave the link to this potting mat in the description below so you can check it out So right now I am just getting as many containers as I can filled up As you can see I'm reusing nursery pots of different things that I've bought in over the years From the greenhouses. These are all great containers that last for years and years if you want to reuse them I'm focusing on bigger ones like three inch or four inch To start my flowers and stuff in I don't want to have to up pot them or deal with A bunch of little seedlings. My focus is to just get Two or three good size plants going That will be ready to transplant out into the garden in about four to six weeks If you were to say, you know, what would be one flower that I should grow In my garden to help with my vegetables, you know to deter pests to attract pollinators My choice for that would be the nasturtium So these things just do so many things for you in the garden. They bring in the hummingbirds and the lady bugs. They love the bright colors They deteriorate weeds. They attract pests that could attack your tomatoes So one thing I've noticed with these in the past is they really do attract and trap pests that could Affect your tomatoes your cucumbers usually later in the season I'll notice that these are all covered with bugs. They start to die off because the bugs have attacked them But basically that's their job is to keep them away from your vegetables and they're such a pretty flower They're edible. So for those reasons, I highly recommend starting a few nasturtiums for your garden So another thing to check out if you're trying to decide if it's something you can start in april is if it recommends that you Direct seed it in early spring. So if it says direct sow Directly into the soil in early spring. Those are also ones that Work good for starting indoors. I don't have a lot of luck with direct sowing flowers for some reason Probably because I have bad soil and quack grass So I always like to ensure that I'm going to have lots of these by starting some indoors Mary goals are another favorite That I like to put into my garden. They are very easy to grow. They are also edible And they also attract the bees and other pollinators And deter pests as well And the other thing about them is they are so easy to collect seeds from every year so that you don't actually have to Keep buying new seeds So I usually just collect the heads off of them in the fall and just Leave them over the winter to dry out And you can open them up and just have an endless amount of merry gold seeds as you can see here So I'm just going to put a generous amount into my pots here Cover them lightly and probably Thin them out a bit once they germinate I've read that they are also a good companion to plant around your potatoes So the zinnias are not only just a beautiful colorful flower that make a great cut flower that you can you know Enjoy and make bouquets for your house and to give away to friends or whatever They are also a great at attracting predatory wasps because they have a lot of sweet nectar in them So although we don't really care for wasps. They do control aphids stink bugs june bugs cabbage worms Tomato horn worms and more so again another benefit of having zinnias in your garden And these are also very easy to collect in the fall I'm trying to make a point of Being better at that in the fall and collecting some of these seeds from my Flower so that I'm not constantly Buying new ones in the spring So the cosmos attract bees and other friendly pollinators So by planting the cosmos amongst your vegetables Those pollinators will come in to check them out and then hopefully Pay a visit to your blooming vegetables such as your tomatoes Washes and do their pollination thing with them as well. So these are great again to have amongst your vegetables So i'm also going to be planting up some sunflowers here and again Great to have in your garden. They are large Nectar rich blooms that attract all sorts of pollinators. They provide a food source to birds and bees and All sorts of wildlife And even if you have a small space and don't think that you have room for sunflowers in your garden They something like this that is a smaller variety. You could even grow in some pots The big tall ones I like to try to get going around my yard Just because they're just so beautiful and magnificent to look at And they just make a good bird feeder in the fall I just take the heads off and if we don't roast the seeds then just put them in my bird feeders And the birds really enjoy them as well So I highly recommend sunflowers give them a try. There's so many different varieties out there Like I said, this is a variety of smaller ones that kind of grow in a bunch I may try doing them in containers myself. We'll see how it goes Again, these are one of the things they recommend you direct sow in early spring Which sometimes I do if I have a space ready I'll pop some more of these into the ground and you know the more I can get going the better So the three herbs that I'm going to get going in April here now are my basil parsley and some dill So when you read the instructions on the back of these herbs, they recommend that you plant these directly out into the soil in the early spring. They like cool damp soil I usually plant my herbs amongst the tomatoes in my large containers I don't have them ready to plant out probably won't for you know another month or so So I thought I would just try using the winter sowing method even though it is getting late for this particular method. I think planting these up in these milk jugs putting them outside with my other winter sowing jugs and get the basil and parsley going in these containers and then when I'm ready to plant them somewhere amongst my vegetables these will be hopefully strong little seedlings ready to go So like the flowers these herbs are great at deterring pests and attracting pollinators As you know basil has a beautiful smell that they say is very strong to you know little insects and pests and Sometimes confuses them and deters them from finding your tomatoes or other plants So all summer long you can pick the basil use it fresh dry it You know Save it for a spice over the winter Same thing with the parsley. I find it. It grows really well amongst my vegetables and I can harvest it all summer long and save some in a few jars and have it Throughout the winter season. So I'm going to be giving a generous sprinkling of each of these seeds into these milk jugs Cover them up with little soil and we will tape them up and put them outside So for the dill here, I decided I'm going to plant it up in a container this size here and just Put this right out into my garden. So if you do a lot of your gardening directly in the ground you And grow dill here and there you Probably know that it is quite prolific and it can spread itself throughout your garden pretty easily So sometimes by just growing it in a container that kind of helps contain it I don't usually have that issue because most of my gardening is done in containers But I think this will be just an easy way to get some dill going and have it fresh for Any pickling that I'm hoping that I'll be doing this summer So dill attracts beneficial insects such as ladybugs, praying mantises, wasps that help deter pests such as the aphids and cabbage moths So potatoes are something that I like to plant out into my garden mid-may And to get them ready starting in april it's always a good idea to get them chitting or sprouting As you can see here, there are some nice healthy green sprouts coming on these seed potatoes here What I like to do just to kind of take them a little bit further is I cut them up into smaller pieces Just making sure you got a couple eyes on each piece These will scab over over the next couple weeks And just keep them in the a tray like this with the sprouts facing upwards It's ideal if they are, you know, three to four inches Long when you're ready to plant them out the best soil temperature for potatoes is somewhere around that 61 to 66 degrees Fahrenheit or 16 to 19 degrees celsius And again, if you are a small gardener or don't do much gardening potatoes can easily be grown in pretty much anything You know, traditionally they were planted in the ground But as you probably have seen on many videos, you can Plant them in containers buckets boxes bags Rubbermaid tubs pretty much anything So you don't expect that you're going to get enough potatoes to get you through the winter But just to try growing a few in containers just to be able to enjoy fresh Garden potatoes. It's totally worth it. So I highly recommend giving potatoes a try So I hope you enjoyed watching me get all the things planted up and ready About one month before last frost date if you grow in a cold climate like I do You know that there is a lot of things that we can still do now to get ready for the outdoor gardening season So please hit that like button leave a comment and don't forget to subscribe So you don't miss out on future videos coming to the channel. Thanks for watching