April is a kind of transition month.
We've still got bits of winter and occasionally we see glimpses of summer.
It's a chance to really get ahead of summer,
because I find after the middle of May, there's hardly a second to waste.
So gain as much time as you can in April, do all that weeding,
and get as many plants in the ground as you can,
but always measuring your time, particularly with the warmth loving plants.
April sees some great harvests
and perennial vegetables really come into their own,
because they've already got a root system in place,
so they can power the new growth in response to the light.
And this rhubarb, for example.
I don't force my rhubarb, because I don't see a need to.
It grows so nicely.
These are so tasty to eat without forcing.
And you actually get more if you don't force it,
because it's able to access the light.
These taste amazing.
It's a variety called Timperley Early
and there's not much preparation to do to get something really nice.
Take off the leaves. This is all good to compost.
That goes in the compost heap and there's already a harvest.
And very quick to pick as well.
That clump I picked already once in March
and this one I picked more recently. So you can see the difference.
You're leaving a lot of smaller stems, but picking the bigger ones.
And then look at this here.
This is amazing how we've got a whole bed of asparagus.
Not much visible. They're just poking through.
And look, what's here is six plants that I grew from seed.
So all of the rest of the asparagus went in as crowns,
which means they're one year old already. And these started as seed two years ago.
And already potentially they're cropping.
You wouldn't normally reckon in the second year from seed to harvest.
But one like that, when they're that size, that's ready.
But because they're still such young plants...
That'll break off. Because they're such young plants, they...
I'm not going to pick them very hard.
I might just pick two or three spears like that and then let them grow
because they need to establish.
So if your asparagus is two or three years old,
generally just pick a tiny bit at the beginning, then let them grow.
If it's four years old or more, you can be enjoying a lot.
And normally in April, in the climate here, they start around the third week of April,
Saint George's Day, actually. That's the fourth week, 23rd of April.
And here we have one of the most amazing April harvests.
Purple-sprouting broccoli.
It comes in different colours
and I've got some very nice white sprouting at the moment coming out at the same time.
I wouldn't mind if that had come a bit earlier.
They do come at different times.
This variety, Claret, is a late season one, if anything.
I know that some of you have been picking this
through the winter even, in mild areas.
This is not a planting you'd grow in continental climates.
But just look how prolific it can be when the conditions are favourable.
And just keep picking these through April.
They get smaller each time you pick, because the side shoots make side shoots,
and that means you end up with a lot of very tiny, thin ones.
And towards the end of April, actually, probably they finish
if they get quite stringy in the stem.
So there's a progression through the month.
Other vegetables that are good to harvest now are overwintered ones.
In this case, it was sown right at the end of August,
and that includes spring onions,
which have just stood here all winter without protection,
and spring cabbage, spring cauliflower, which have been under mesh covers usually.
And after trimming off, these just make a beautiful spring feast.
If you leave the roots on, you can just put them in a glass of water
in your kitchen and you've got access to spring onions for quite a while.
So, many of those lovely harvests we've just seen start life in here,
and there's plenty more you can be sowing in April.
One of the first things will be, if you have not done it already,
is to sow a lot of the things
that you could have sown from mid-February through March.
And we put a list for you there, which doesn't include everything now,
because that's something that's a little bit late for like turnip,
fennel, kohlrabi,
but you could resow them actually come July.
Every month has many opportunities.
And April, we've got a nice list in the calendar.
And because there's so many things you can sow,
almost any date of the spring, summer, early autumn,
we've categorised things in the calendar,
and the ones that are not bold, just normal type,
that's in the first week of April.
It could be, say, onions still, just, and tomatoes still,
but not much longer than that.
And then you come into the the bold ones, which is the first sowings, which...
Basil actually could be late March too,
but that's coming into a prime time for sowing now.
But with some warmth. And then cucumbers likewise.
So we've got the whole cucurbit family that I hope you haven't sown yet,
Actually it's better...
They need warmth and they grow much more strongly
with warmth and light,
and that means that it's better to sow them a bit later than sooner,
so I sow cucumbers mid-month.
That's for growing under cover.
I sow them at the end of the month for sowing outdoors or even in May.
And then you've got all the courgettes and squash family,
which you could sow from mid-month.
But there's no rush actually, because again, because they need warmth.
So I do a lot of those between the 15th and 25th.
And there is just time still to sow melons.
Better in early April, because they take a bit longer to grow
than cucumbers and squash.
Also, around mid-month I like to sow chard.
If you sow it earlier, it tends to bolt.
And that's all part of the whole principles of propagation
and getting the best from your sowing.
And one of them is warmth for germination.
So that's what I'm doing here with a hot bed.
If you don't have that, you can have a heat mat.
In April, it's a really good place.
If you've got electricity in the greenhouse have a heat mat,
because that means you've got bottom warmth,
you've got the light, and you'll get strong, sturdy plants,
and you'll be surprised at how fast your seeds come up.
It's a very clear indication if the seeds are good.
Sometimes the seeds don't come up, and that's from...
Maybe they were old seeds. So don't always blame yourself for that.
April is absolutely the best planting time for potatoes.
I say planting. Well, it's it's kind of like a seed.
We talk about seed potato.
It is a potato.
I actually use a trowel to put them in, because they're quite big.
And you want to get them into a certain depth,
where there's going to be maybe five centimetres compost
on top, soil compost, depending on what you're growing in.
So there's three types of potato.
Be clear when you're planting them which type you're actually growing.
So first earlies, will be called that, many varieties.
And they mature much more quickly.
So they'll come to harvest by the middle of June often.
And you space them a bit closer.
You can go even 30 cm.
Whereas second earlies take longer to grow, so they need more space.
And you can still plant them in April.
Everything you can plant in April. Of potatoes.
And the second earlies need maybe 45 centimetres, 18 inches
And the main crop, which will mature, say by early September,
could be even 60 cm, depending a bit on how big you want your potatoes to be.
You've got flexibility here.
There are lovely things to grow, because you can be creative with potatoes.
And in terms of planting depth...
Like I'm making a hole with the trowel here,
going down to about the depth of my trowel, which is that much, that's like 15, 18cm.
And the potato is going to be at the bottom of that hole.
So it's got a good five-seven cm, two-three inches on top of it.
Just pop it in like that.
And then in terms of growing on,
you're gonna have the whole sequence of, later,
putting maybe some more compost on top.
Or if there's a frost, you earth it up.
That's something to watch out for in April.
But if you don't sow too early in April, you won't even see shoots, maybe until May.
There's not a lot going on there.
I sometimes sow some radish, maybe between the potatoes.
There's other options like that as well.
Transplanting in April is actually quite a bit the same as it was in March,
but with more chance of success,
because we do have more light, and hopefully more temperature.
Although you can never be too sure.
So most of what you're putting out is cold, resistant vegetables
like the lettuce and the spinach and the radish and the onions
and cabbage and calabrese.
Not the frost tender plants like courgettes and so on, which you're only just sowing.
So be a bit patient.
But you've got the possibility of reasonably rapid plant take,
because there's always a period after transplanting,
when plants are in a bit of a shock.
It's like, oh, I was in this nice place and now I'm not.
I'm a bit further away from my neighbours Help!
And slugs and snails, for example,
and even aphids actually, can pick up those alarm signals.
Or they definitely do, because you see it.
And, you know, I have it here, where established vegetables are fine,
but the slugs are eating the new transplants.
To some extent, it helps to have them not too small,
but more than anything, I'd recommend...
You know, we're succeeding here with quite small transplants.
This was late March or mid to late March.
With a cover. That really helps, because it protects them from the weather.
But you need to have your slug and snail population under control.
So things like not having old wooden sides, where they can all be hiding on the inside.
And have a tidy garden.
And maybe go out at night the night before you transplant,
before you transplant, with a torch
and see what you find, see what's going on.
And you might be shocked. There might be a lot of slugs there.
You know, maybe then wait a bit, but also collect them up
and just get the numbers down.
As an example of the potential damage of slugs and snails, you can see here.
It's better than I expected, to be honest,
but that's the sort of thing where a lettuce was here
and now it's not here anymore.
And it could be either a slug or a snail.
A slug is just a snail without a shell, you could say.
And so that's why I like to always have replacements ready.
That way, you know, there's not much point in having space doing nothing.
So keep it as full as you can.
But here, the example of habitat is, I have got wooden sides,
because I need them just to stop this falling over the edge.
I might think of a way of not having them actually though,
because this is slug habitat.
And beyond there's just edges where molluscs can hide.
In this situation, I'm counting myself fortunate
that these lettuces are doing as well as they are.
I think it helps with no dig.
You get the ground beetles eating slugs, that kind of thing.
Sometimes you just have to hang in there, but have spare plants ready.
That's my number one tip.
Covers really come into their own in April,
because you've got all this surplus daylight and a lot of cold wind.
And so they protect plants from the wind.
It's actually more about wind than about frost.
It's sometimes called frost fleece, like here.
This is quite an old cover and I value it, because it's not the thickest.
You can still see the plants through it.
That's 25g/m², compared to a 31, which is over there, and that's thicker.
It's okay, but I actually prefer it slightly thinner.
It still does a great job and probably lets a bit more rain through as well.
This one certainly lets rain through.
That's called Thermacrop, but it's just not quite as warm as fleece.
And then a third type of cover is mesh, which also keeps some wind off,
but it's not so warm and it's more pest protection really.
So mesh for against pests. And that's what you'll use more.
We use it much more in the summer and autumn for that.
Whereas this is the moment now, April into early May.
We actually mostly take these covers off towards the end of April, maybe early May,
because then the sun can be quite strong, finally,
and it can even get too hot in there sometimes.
So this is the month when, if you put covers,
especially on new plants, you will see a fantastic difference,
uptake in growth. And using hoops like this piece of wire
can make quite a difference in terms of keeping them off the plants,
But it's not vital.
And we've got some beds where the fleece is on the plants, even on little onions.
And they do all right, actually.
So you've got options.
Garlic in April is starting to look strong.
And don't worry if you see some yellow leaves,
because it can be residual from the cold and difficult conditions
that garlic's been through in the winter months.
You still get some yellowing lower leaves. Just as you do on many plants, actually.
I think it's just more dramatic on garlic,
because you can see the space around them more clearly.
What you want to be noticing, and I'm sure you will be,
is this lovely dark green middle, because that's the sign of strong growth.
Just not to fret if some of your lower leaves are going yellow.
I'll bet you anything it doesn't mean they need what some people call a feed
or anything like that, because the feeding, the nutrients,
comes when the soil warms up.
In cold conditions, that's another reason you get the yellow leaves.
Where as the soil warms up,
you will notice the growth gets stronger and greener.
Weeds might look quite small and then suddenly they get big.
And April is a month when that can make a difference.
Keep on top of your weeding.
Weed them small, preferably,
and then you will have a lot of green matter
at different times. And we're adding it here to brown.
April is a chance to make more compost.
If you have a large allotment or a medium-sized garden,
a three bay pallet system like this can work really well.
We fill each of the two corner bays in turn
and actually get compost like this after about eight months.
That's pretty nice. I'm happy with that.
So don't expect it to look perfect, but it will have fantastic value.
Making your own compost is one of the best things you can do.
Very empowering.
Something to watch out for in April is the last frost.
Or it might not even be the last frost, but there can be some very cold nights
and you might want to earth up potato shoots, for example.
It's a month when you just need to be on your guard a bit.
We can still have some pangs of winter, but just keep ahead.
And particularly weeds, I would emphasise more than anything.
It's not a very glamorous subject. But don't let the weeds get ahead of you.
Keep your ground clean and then you'll be ready for the wonderful month of May,
when you can put out a lot of warmth loving plants.