The sowing of a new selection of summer crops can begin in earnest in April. With warm spring sunshine and plenty of showers the veg plot will really come alive over the next month. Vegetables, as well as weeds, will really take off now so keep an eye out.
Support your peas! Peas sown last year or earlier this year need to be supported by either pea netting or twiggy sticks.
Prepare runner bean supports – this will save you time later in the year.
Shade seedlings in the greenhouse on sunny days. Water can be lost rapidly from the leaves and seedlings can quickly die if compost dries out too.
Apply soil improvers such as wellrotted farmyard manure and compost this month according to the needs of the plants that will be growing there.
As the soil warms up; a greater range of crops can be sown directly into the soil outdoors. Seeds will germinate more quickly, and seedlings grow faster, often outstripping earlier sowings. Try beetroot, broad beans, early carrots, kohl rabi, lettuce, parsnips, peas, spinach, spring onions, swiss chard.
Plant onions and potatoes outdoors.
Try growing a selection of varieties of a particular crop in order to stagger the harvest, so everything isn’t ready to eat at the same time. Perhaps you could seed swap with friends to get a wider variety.
In the greenhouse, start celery, celeriac, courgettes, cucumber, sweetcorn, pumpkins (second half of the month) and tomatoes (outdoor varieties).
Give rhubarb plants a good mulch with garden compost or well rotted manure and leave them uncovered for the rest of the year without cropping them again.
Melissa Corkhill is the editor of The Green Parent magazine, mother of two and author of the book Green Parenting
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