April sowing and planting

[CharlotteE]

Hi,

I work on the mag and I'm on the lookout for tips to appear in our monthly newsletter.

What's everyone going to be sowing or planting in April? And have you got any top tips for success to help other growers? Post here and I'll PM you if we can use your tips in the newsletter

Unfortunately we can't offer any vouchers, but you will get to see your advice in 'print'!

Thanks,

Charlotte (Editorial Assistant)

[butter fingers]

Hi,

I work on the mag and I'm on the lookout for tips to appear in our monthly newsletter.

What's everyone going to be sowing or planting in April? And have you got any top tips for success to help other growers? Post here and I'll PM you if we can use your tips in the newsletter

Unfortunately we can't offer any vouchers, but you will get to see your advice in 'print'!

Thanks,

Charlotte (Editorial Assistant)

a good tip,
get hold of clear plasiic drinking cups as they are very handy.Uses inc cloches,slug traps (bury them up to their rims)emergency pots for re-potting seedlings and for mixing measures of compost, vermiculite etc.

[Two_Sheds]

What's everyone going to be sowing or planting in April?

Um ... everything !

[ardroil]

ive started everything but cucumbers as sewer rat says, i need to wait a wee while longer, us being in the highlands but he says our will catch up with everyone elses as we get more hours of daylight up here.
i did try them a few weeks ago but they poped there heads through and then thought the better of it and died,
so that could be a tip for the north of scotland.

[Flummery]

April (late April as I live up North!) is my time for sowing many tender plants. I sow my climbing beans (I grow lots of these) and my courgettes and squashes at this time. Last year I grew achocha for the first time, also from an April sowing. These are all ready to go out into their permanent places at the end of May. It's still not too late to sow tomatoes of course. Later sowings do catch up.

[geoff]

I'm not exactly planting anything much on my plot year. The soil is dusty and full of weeds, and I can only grow basic stuff like potatoes; anything that needs "finer " quality soil will germinate but not thrive. there seems to be a definate lack of organic material
So, I've made a decision, to get things put right and prepare for the future

Just under a quarter of the plot at one end where I've added come compost isn't too bad; I will plant it with potatoes mostly, plus a few beans and onions. The rest I will cover/mulch with cardboard or newspaper topped with manure , to which end I have obtained my own large delivery (see my thread Yippee up to my neck... about 5 weeks ago), and it can stay like that till spring 2010

When the few crops are harvested, that area, will be mulched till spring 2010 also. Then I can dig it in and weed out any that survive at my own pace

The point of this is that I would love to plant vast and varied amounts of veg, but you have to be pragmatic, and do the best you can with what you've got - I saw on a thread months ago Gardening is a journey, not a destination

I will still be busy - putting new windows in, and generally rennovating the shed, growing carrots and tomatoes in containers, getting my rosemary hedge established along the top fence

[Herbie]

I will be sowing French Marigolds to help keep pests at bay. Not only are they bright and cheerful but they encourage good insects which helps with pollination. I will surround my tomatoes, chillies and peppers with French Marigolds as the smell of the foliage is a repellant to whitefly.

[shirlthegirl43]

I will be sowing all the stuff I forgot / didn't get round to sowing in March This will include Kohl Rabi (determined to grow my own this year), more brocolli and calabrese, different cabbages, sprouts, beans, peas etc etc etc. Also more spuds as and when I have the time.

[Mi Jardín]

I will be sowing my runner beans indoors, planting my main crop potatoes and sowing more carrots and beetroot.
My tip: use polystyrene from packaging when you run out of crocks for your pots. You use less compost and it also helps with drainage....recycling!

[Gwyndy]

I thought that we were supposed to be getting advice from you Charlotte, not the other way round!!

Moral - don't buy the magazine, just use the forum.

[vegnut]

Don't forget to keep sowing Carrots. We use so many Carrots as part of our staple diet, and we always run out of the fresh stuff. So keep sowing every 3 to 4 weeks, to continue the harvest for that much longer.

[Eyren]

We have a lot of slugs on the allotment, so I start almost everything off in modules. This month I'm going to be planting out lettuce, spinach and chard that I started under cover earlier in the spring, and using rings of plastic cut from 2-litre cola bottles as barriers to keep the slugs out; the little blighters don't seem to like crawling over the sharp edges. I'll also be using bran as a second barrier, as it came out top in a GYO test last year, and a few wildlife-friendly pellets as well. My plot will be a slug assault course this spring!