April Calendar
For easy crops to grow in April choose a mixed salad seed that can be sown weekly in small pots of compost in a greenhouse, cold frame or even on a windowsill. You can easily grow enough for several family servings of salad from one packet of seed and you can’t get it any fresher than home sown salad, simply pick it on demand.
In a cool greenhouse or propagator sow tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, courgettes, runner beans, French beans, sweetcorn and half-hardy annuals. Sow into small flowerpots full of good quality seed compost, or for large seeds such as sweet peas, beans and peas use Root Trainers that allow the roots to develop undisturbed until they are ready to plant out.
Outdoors, if the soil is crumbly and not stodgy, sow broad beans, leeks, summer cabbages, cauliflower, summer spinach, French beans, peas, celery, parsnip, and Brussels sprouts. Make a shallow trench in the soil about 1in (2.5cm) deep, line the base with a loam based multi-purpose compost, water gently and then sprinkle the seed thinly on top. Cover over with more compost and protect with cloches or fleece tunnels.
Beetroot, parsnip, peas, spinach, turnip, lettuce, carrots and radish can be sown in shallow drills lined with compost, without extra protection. However if you are in an exposed position, or the weather is particularly harsh, a covering of fleece or a cloche will help speed germination.
Plant onion sets out into the garden 10-15cm apart.
Plan to sow a few seeds of each vegetable every two weeks so that they mature at different rates to provide a succession of produce for the table. Some crops such as carrots can be sown in small amounts right through until July so that you get plenty of fresh carrots all through the summer and autumn and into winter too.
To avoid your carrots being affected by carrot fly choose to grow a good carrot fly resistant variety such as Carrot ‘Flyaway’ which shows excellent resistance to this pest. Alternatively cover over the emerging seedlings with fleece; pegging it down thoroughly all along the edges to prevent the carrot fly adults gaining access to your crops. This will stop their eggs being laid along your rows of carrots, and prevent the potential larval damage to the carrot roots.
Feed permanent crops such as herbs, artichokes, asparagus, rhubarb and fruit in early spring with a balanced fertiliser such as growmore or pelleted chicken manure.
Continue to plant potato tubers 5-6in (12.5-15cm) deep and about 12in (30cm) apart. Cover over with fleece to protect emerging shoots from frost. As shoots appear cover them over with more soil. This encourages more tubers to form underground.
Keep the garden weed free. Weeds not only compete for any available food and water, but they also provide shelter for a number of garden pests and diseases. Dig out any perennial weeds making sure to remove all the roots and hoe off any annual weed seedlings as they appear. Always hoe when the soil is slightly dry and on a sunny day so that the uprooted weeds seedlings will quickly wither.
Protect fruit bushes, especially currants and gooseberries from bird damage. Cover with fleece to keep the birds off while the new buds are bursting. Remember to remove the protection as the flower buds start to form, otherwise pollinating insects will not reach the flowers, and you will not get any fruit.
Pot up Dahlia tubers, Begonia corms and rooted cuttings and keep in a frost-free environment until the last frost has passed. Choose other summer flowering bulbs such as lilies, gladioli and Eucomis from the wide range on offer at garden.
Sowing annual bedding plants in pots of seed compost in the protection of the greenhouse or cold frame. Choose a quality, fresh seed compost as these are formulated to give the seeds the very best possible start and everything that they need to start growing.
Don’t be tempted into putting out half-hardy bedding plants into the garden. A warm spell can be very encouraging; especially to beginner gardeners, but at this time of year a cold snap won’t be far away. Keep them in a frost free greenhouse or a cold frame for extra protection. If your plants are shooting early they may need a little additional protection. Place a layer of horticultural fleece over any plants that are unexpectedly beginning to develop strong spring growth, especially if a frost threatens.
Keep an eye on any new plants in the garden and be sure to water them if the weather is dry, even in early spring, rainfall can tail off and the topsoil can dry out quickly. New plants need plenty time to establish a good root system before they can fend for themselves in a dry spell.
Dead head any early spring flowers and bulbs as they die off. Feed the plants after flowering with a balanced general fertiliser such as growmore so that the plants can build up the bulb for next years’ flowers. Don’t be tempted to cut off the leaves of bulbs that have flowered, simply bend over the foliage to ground level and allow them to dry out and wither naturally. The leaves manufacture essential food reserves to ensure that the bulbs can over winter and flower again next spring.
Divide overcrowded perennial plants and replant the pieces around the garden.
Check on overwintering plants in the greenhouse, such as geraniums and fuchsias. It’s too early to put them outside but they may be sprouting new growth that is perfect for taking cuttings. Pot the plants up into fresh and start to water them gently, ensuring that they are not too wet and not allowed to dry out either. As the new shoots start to develop take softwood cuttings.
If you are growing your container plants from seed then make sure you sow them now so they are established by early June. There’s a huge variety that can be sown during April and May that will flower this year. Alternatively take cuttings of existing plants or visit the garden centre and choose some contrasting plants for containers. These will need greenhouse protection until the danger of frost has passed.
Plant up containers and hanging baskets with your favourite continer plants and keep them in a frost free greenhouse to grow on. Use a quality container compost and pinch out the growing tips of your plants to encourage them to be bushy. Keep in the warmer greenhouse environment until all danger of frost has passed.
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