On Holidays for April - have I missed any jobs?

[magz.mccarthy]

Hi all,

I'm going on holidays for all of April (brother inconsiderately not choosing date of wedding to time well with growing season ) so I've got a week left to finish as many jobs as I can before departing.

I have all my potatoes planted, garlic and onions are coming along nicely, and sowed a few early carrots with a protective fleece wall surround.

I have cauliflower, broccolli, tomatoes, aubergines, chilis, sweet pepper, melon, lavendar, marigold, pea and bean seedlings in the greenhouse (there are a few moisture leeks, they'll be ok for water if not for warmth).

I've planted strawberries and covered with fleece. Planted sunflowers under fleece and put in soft berry canes.

Is there anything else i can do in the next week before leaving? I'm planning on planting sweetcorn, basil, climbing beans, cuecumber etc when i return in the last week of April, but I'm worried that I've forgotten something that should be done in the meantime. Is there some poor vegetable that I've neglected?

Margaret

[amandaandherveg]

We're off on holiday next month too and my list is almost identical to yours.

The only thing I'm doing differently is giving my seedlings and young plants over to my neighbour to babysit in her greenhouse. We're away for two weeks and it get's too frosty here so she'll have the fleece at the ready.

I also planted my spuds out last weekend - but put them in pretty deep.

Have a lovely time at the wedding.

[SarzWix]

You sound very well organised to me I can't think of anything you've missed!
I'd cover as much as possible with cardboard/thick mulch/straw to minimize weeding when you get back, but then I cover as much as I can like that anyway

Hope you enjoy the wedding & holiday, and don't worry tooo much about your seedlings.

[Eyren]

If you can't get someone in to check on them, I'd be tempted to put the toms and other tender seedlings on some capillary matting with the end in a bucket of water, and put up some fleece or similar near the glass as sunshade - if we get an unseasonal warm spell they could frazzle under glass, and a month's a long time for them to go without proper watering.

Apart from that, though, I can't think of anything you've missed - late April sowings will soon catch up!

[magz.mccarthy]

Yup I'm hoping to dig over the final few beds this weekend and cover them then for the month so it'll be easy to plant into them on return.

Thankfully a friend has agreed to come over and water the seedlings every few days, so they should be ok. This fella though is as likely to water the weeds so it should be interesting to see what's winning in the greenhouse on return!