April is such a wonderful month to sow seeds of edible plants, as it’s possible to grow almost anything from seed at this exciting time of year! Make the effort to get out in your garden or allotment now and benefit from the opportunity to sow seeds of carrots, parsnips, globe artichokes, and other edible plants that take more time than others to grow and develop.
Homegrown peas are a taste sensation! Peas are decorative plants that produce handsome flowers and tasty edible leaves, tendrils, pods, and peas. You’ll need a bright and sunny area to grow these delicious vegetables (peas won’t grow in the shade).
June is a magical time for gardeners. All risk of frost has passed now, which gives us an exciting opportunity to grow a wide range of tasty vegetables from seed. Unless you have a balcony or patio garden, there’s no need to bother with pots and compost. Seize the moment and sow seeds directly in the ground where you want you want your plants to grow.
When midsummer passes us by, rhubarb production naturally slows down. Unless you’re growing a late summer and autumn cropping rhubarb (like ‘Livingstone’), stop picking rhubarb now to allow your plants to build up their strength for next year’s harvests. Rhubarb thrives in wet summers. After heavy rain (or a thorough watering), spread a mulch of well-rotted manure or homemade garden compost over the soil around your plants.
April is a truly generous and forgiving time of year for gardeners. This month provides us with numerous opportunities to grow an extensive range of exciting and exotic fruit and vegetables from seed.
Although there’s a wealth of seed choices on offer, not all of the unusual edibles we can grow are guaranteed to succeed in our variable climate and not every variety produces the best flavoured harvest.
I enjoyed visiting the Seedlip Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018. Dr Catherine MacDonald designed this interesting garden as a celebration of the pea plant family – Fabaceae, and to highlight the work carried out by three pea pioneers: Gregor Mendel, Dr Calvin Lamborn, and Ben Branson. Ben Branson is the founder of Seedlip, a company that produce distilled non-alcoholic spirits.
I love growing vegetables, it’s a truly wonderful, soul enriching experience to grow your own food! Sadly an increasing number of us are without the luxury of a garden or allotment and have nowhere to grow vegetables, herbs, fruit, or flowers; while a great many others struggle to garden in small, often paved spaces, without any access to the soil.
Garden designer Dr Catherine MacDonald devised the Seedlip Garden as a celebration of the pea – Pisum sativum. The Seedlip Garden features peas and plants related to peas – plants from the pea plant family – Fabaceae. This Space to Grow Garden also honours the work of three men and their work in relation to peas. The first man that the Seedlip Garden commemorates is Gregor Mendel (1822-1824).
I love April, it’s such a super month in the garden – there are so many beautiful vegetables that you can sow now.
It’s an exciting and romantic time in the garden, with lots to do this month, and so much to look forward to in the garden! Take time out to relax and enjoy the wonderfully scented flowers of Daphne, Sarcococca, and Hamamelis.
Prune Buddleja davidii now. If you’ve got an old, and maybe rather neglected, specimen then start to rejuvenate your plant now, by removing any old dead wood and cutting it back hard.
The garden is fascinating at this time of year. I love the wonderful sound of the birds singing, and I just relish the scents of honeysuckle, roses, and other flowers; even the scent of the grass is so relaxing.
If you get time to put your feet up it’s the ideal time to pre-order bulbs, corms, and tubers from specialist nurseries to plant this autumn.
I just love this time of year when everywhere is developing a beautiful shade of green! Every year it’s like a revelation, as hedgerows, trees, lawns, everywhere, turn the most beautiful shade of fresh, new, positive, wonderful, green! There are many jobs you can do now to keep your garden or allotment looking beautiful; here are some ideas to get you started…
The Chelsea chop, so called as it’s carried out around the time of the Chelsea Flower Show, is simply a term to describe cutting back herbaceous, perennial plants, reducing the plants’ height by to up to a half, before flowering.
The abundance of flowers, fruit, and scent makes this time of year feel rather decadent. Make time to savour the sights and sounds of summer, and enjoy the fruits of your labour in the garden.
Prune Wisteria. After flowering, cut back the long, whippy green shoots – the current year’s growth – to five or six leaf joints. Pruning now will ensure your plant maintains a tidy shape, preventing the wisteria getting itself into a messy tangle, as well as encouraging flower bud formation for next year.
I just love this time of year when everywhere is developing a beautiful shade of green! Every year it’s like a revelation as hedgerows, trees, lawns, everywhere, turn the most beautiful shade of fresh, new green. There are many jobs you can do now to keep your garden or allotment looking beautiful, here are some ideas to get you started:
It’s the ideal time to sow French beans and runner beans outside.
The abundance of flowers, fruit and scent in the garden makes this time of year feel rather decadent. Take in the sights and sounds of summer, and enjoy the fruits of your labour in the garden, or at your allotment this month.
It’s important to prune figs now, to let in more light and allow for a better harvest of delicious figs next year.
The end of summer is often a magical time, bathed in golden light and sunshine. There’s certainly a lots of lovely things you could do in the garden, or at your allotment during the month ahead!
Vine weevils are a real pain, especially if you’ve got lots of container grown plants. The adult vine weevils damage plant leaves, leaving a notch-shaped, irregular edge to the leaves, resulting in a rather ragged looking, tatty plant.
With April sunshine and showers, let’s hope we see lots of rainbows this month!
Sowing seeds is a wonderfully cost-effective way of gardening, and a quick and easy way to provide a valuable source of nectar, pollen, and food for insects. If you would like to grow more plants beneficial to bees, butterflies, and other pollinating insects, then now is a good time to sow Cosmos bipinnatus and Verbena bonariensis seeds under cover.
