In this video I walk you through 17 crops you can direct sow in March and April—my first wave of cool-weather planting here in Maryland zone 7. The biggest key is timing it to soil temperatures, not the calendar. I’m looking for that top 2–4 inches of soil to be in the 45–55°F range, with nights trending into the 40s and days pushing the upper 50s/60s. If you direct sow too early, seeds can sit cold and soggy, swell up, and then fail from fungus, rot, or animals finding them. I start with simple bed prep: loosen the soil 2–4 inches, level it, then press it down so tiny seeds don’t sink too deep. I show you my “finger hole” method for quick planting, how I label with paint sticks, and why I like succession planting (especially for radishes) so you’re not harvesting 500 at once. On the root/bulbing side I cover peas, radishes, carrots, beets, turnips, onions (seed and sets), and leeks—including why you never want to direct sow into woody mulch and how water-soluble fertilizer can help if your soil has too much decaying wood. Then I move into leafy greens: spinach (including overwintering), kale, collards (don’t over-plant), bok/pak choy, endive, mustard greens, broccoli raab/rapini, arugula, and bib lettuce. I also share a simple deer-deterrent “dome” cover idea for beds, because nothing’s worse than doing the work and having deer clean you out overnight.