The vegetable garden in April

Have you been limbering up ready for this busy veg growing time? … it’s been a slow start for me this year, mainly because I haven’t got a proper vegetable garden right now. I said goodbye to the allotment last year because our new garden is  big enough – just- for 6 raised beds, but more garden work needs doing before the beds can be built.

Undeterred, I’ve got one of the borders lined up, eventually it’ll be for ornamentals, but this year it’s having vegetables in it, and I’m going to plant up large pots with salad leaves near the kitchen door.

Small weed seedlings are appearing around the garden, so the soil is warm enough for them, but I’m waiting until nearer the end of the month before I plant seeds in the ground. There was frost here last night, just to make the point that the cold weather isn’t done with yet.

In the meantime I’m preparing the soil by digging then hoeing, so that all the lumps are broken up and pulling out weeds as I work my way through the bed. I’ll be ready with seed packets of beetroot, salads, carrots and chard to start sowing in a week or so, it’s useful to have plant labels written on in advance.

I’ll be planting seeds of more tender plants, like courgettes, squash and beans any day now and keeping them on windowsills. I want them to be sturdy enough to grow outside when there won’t be any frost. They’ll be out in the coldframe as a halfway house, before being planted in the garden.

Apart from seeds, maincrop potatoes can be planted now. How do you plant yours? I planted mine in trenches at the allotment, it was much easier to push soil in over them as they grew, rather than heaping it up around them.

Other jobs for April:

If you’re tomato plants are growing well, and have a couple of pairs of proper leaves, pot them into their own individual pots so they have room to keep growing. Water the plants first and let it soak in for half an hour, gather everything you’ll need, then tease the plant out holding it gently by the leaves. plant it in the new pot, label and  water it.

Get frames and supports ready for climbing peas and beans.

Add organic compost or soil improver to weeded beds, water the soil first if it’s completely dry.

Weed and cover the soil with horticultural fleece to warm it up so seeds germinate more quickly when they’re sown.

I may get a bit fancy with my plant labels after the calligraphy workshop I did last week in London, you can see the pic I took on Instagram here

I hope your week goes well, let me know how your seeds are growing.

Jill