This Month in the Garden - April 2022

Spring has arrived now. It is such an exciting time of year with new shoots and leaves developing, daffodils and tulips brightening our gardens, and fruit trees blossoming and filling the air with their beautiful scents. My favourite sight in spring are the fresh, glossy, green new leaves of hawthorn, marking the arrival of the English springtime.

Go out and enjoy. Skip if you feel like it (I will be)!

In the Allotment

• I’m continuing to remove weeds.

• If you sowed any seeds last month, thin out any seedlings if required. Seedlings, such as lettuces and herbs, can be eaten as micro herbs or can be replanted elsewhere.

• Now is a good time to add some herbs to your garden or increase the ones you have. Cuttings from mints and oregano can be taken this month, as can soft wood cuttings of new growth of rosemary and sage. Small herb plants can also be purchased and added to the garden to increase your herb garden. Perennial species will provide herbs for several years and evergreen species provide colour throughout the year.

• Remember to remove side shoots from older cordon tomato plants.

Sowing Undercover

• More spring onions, lettuce leaves and dill; beetroot and coriander can also be sown.

• I’m also sowing leeks and carrots - ‘Chantenay’ carrots did well for us last year and I sowed several batches throughout the year.

• I’m sowing in trays and modules and keeping undercover in our little ‘greenhouse’ or in the shed.

Sowing Undercover with Warmth

• After the middle of the month, I’ll be sowing courgette, squash and pumpkin. Cucumber can also be sown, though we do not really have room for these along with all of the other things I want to grow!

• Basil can be sown after mid-month and I will be sowing lemon basil, Thai basil and cinnamon basil (newly discovered last year and I love the smell!), also lettuce-leaf basil (you can’t have too much basil!).

• When big enough tomato plants can be repotted. It is also the last chance to sow tomatoes this month.

Sowing Outside

• Broad beans, lettuce, spinach, leaf beet, peas, carrots, spring onions, radish, leeks and parsley can be sown outside. I have more success sowing in modules undercover first and planting out when larger and more slug resistant! If you do sow outside, a cover, such as fleece, will help protect your plants if the temperatures drop and also protect from the pigeons. A cover sometimes even deter slugs too – though this is not always the case!

• The spinach I planted last autumn has done well throughout the winter. I covered with fleece and the plants are still providing leaves. The parsley I sowed directly in autumn is also doing well. I find it grows better sowing it in autumn than spring.

Planting

• I’m planting the mangetout I sowed last month, and any beetroot, lettuce, peas, broad beans and spinach sown last month (if big enough) into the ground.

• Although not a food, I am planting the sweet peas sown in autumn. They have such beautiful flowers and scent and are loved by insects so they are always included in the garden. They’re great for cutting too and I always like to have a vase of them somewhere in the house – often several vases!

Harvesting

• The last of the leeks should now be harvested. I’m also harvesting salad leaves and, of course, as always, herbs!

• Rhubarb is at its best this month. Remember not to cut the stalks as this damages the plant. Instead pull them, holding the stalk close at the base of the plant, twisting and tearing off. Be sure to make some crumble!

In The Garden

• Lavender can be lightly pruned if they are untidy or if growth is frost damaged but remember not to cut into the woody growth as lavender does not grow well from old stems.

• I’m sowing flowers such as night scented stock – this was lovely to have in a pot at the doorstep last year which I smelt every night, and on many a very early morning, when returning home after a bat survey.

• I’ve sown sunflowers in toilet role tubes to be planted straight into the ground, tube and all, once established enough.

• Remember to deadhead tulips and daffodils once over and allow foliage to die down naturally so that food is transported down to the bulb ready to spring back up again next spring.

• Evergreen hedges can be planted this month and provide great cover for birds and small mammals in particular as well as providing shelter in the garden and cleaning the air whilst they’re at it!

• Dahlia tubers can be planted this month and plants sown in February/March can be hardened off and planted out.

Looking After Wildlife

• Make sure to check compost bins carefully before emptying in case frogs, mice, field voles or hedgehogs are sheltering. I opened our compost bin up to find a mouse sheltering at the top.

• Avoid trimming hedges between now until September when birds are nesting. Bird nests and breeding birds are protected by law. If you need to trim hedges, check first for bird nests or signs of breeding birds, and use hand tools instead of power tools until the end of breeding season (ideally the end of September).

• It is still not too late to put up a bird box or why not try making your own?

• Allow ‘weeds’ to grow. ‘Weeds’ such as dandelions provide an essential early source of pollen and nectar and provide a food source to a range of pollinators including bumblebees, solitary bees, honeybees hoverflies and butterflies. Birds such as goldfinches, blackbirds and house sparrows eat their seed. Small mammals such as mice will eat the seeds and foliage.

Foraging

• Dandelions (I will be collecting them regularly from the garden), chickweed, common mallow, garlic mustard, gorse blossoms, ground elder.

• Remember to forage responsibly and safely.