Gardening month by month: April

April in the Garden

This issue of the Big Green Idea newsletter is focusing on the difference communities can make, and this applies to gardening as much as it does to anything else. Whilst a private back garden enjoyed alone can be an oasis of peace and calm after a stressful day in the salt mines, communal gardening can also have its attractions. That might mean getting out in the garden as a family and having a talk over the fence to neighbours, joining fellow plot holders at an allotment site for some digging and a chinwag or getting involved with one of the growing number of urban communal gardening schemes.

The latter are particularly interesting as they bring diverse groups of people together with a common, achievable aim and help local communities turn inner-city eyesores and wastelands into beautiful and productive spaces. Some urban gardening collectives are backed by local authorities or companies and are given control of derelict spaces that these organisations either can not or will not look after otherwise. Some groups are parts of larger organisations such as green groups, churches or Transition Towns movements. Other groups are somewhat more ‘clandestine' and perform acts of ‘guerrilla gardening' - turning unloved and unused public spaces into colourful displays and free sources of fruit and vegetables. Often the authorities turn a blind eye to these people - especially if it means they can deny all the costs and responsibility for their actions! All you really need to form an urban gardening group is a gang of like-minded local folk, a few hand tools, some seeds, a bit of land and your time.

But what if you want to get gardening but have no land of your own and don't know anyone who wants to get involved in a communal gardening scheme locally? Or maybe you're a group of individuals who want to start a communal garden but want to do it with the support of the landowner? Or maybe you've got a garden with your home or a bit of ground at your company but you don't have the time or ability to make use of it? That's when a scheme called Landshare could come in handy. The idea behind Landshare is that people with land that they can't or won't use register and are put in touch with other people who have registered because they want to make use of land but don't have any themselves. It is being backed by Channel 4 television and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and will be offering online maps so that you can see where land is being offered in your local area, or if any of your neighbours are forming groups or offering help. There's even a position for ‘land spotters' who report potentially unused spaces, so there should be something for everyone!

For an example of how landshare works please click here for an article from daisygreenmagazine's founder, Nicola Alexander

Anyway, for those who do have access to space to garden in already, lets look at what April has in store for you. The late winter has seen some rather bad weather in many parts of the UK, with heavy snow falls and far colder weather than we've experienced in winters for the last few years. In some ways its more like the winters that I remember from my youth, but I do hope readers managed to protect any of the less hardy plants that they had outside. If you did lose some plants, look on the positive side: at least you've now got a space in which to try something new! Hopefully with April we'll start to see traditional spring weather with some warmer days and reasonable rainfall. However don't be lulled into a false sense of security by warm sunny days in the garden: at night temperatures can easily still drop to freezing in most areas so don't start planting out tender young plants just yet without some form of protection (cloches, cold frames, etc).

Planting Out

However there are some plants that are quite happy to be planted out in the ground as long as it isn't frozen solid. One of these is the Jerusalem artichoke. For those who have not come across these before they are related to sunflowers (rather than globe artichokes as their common name would suggest) and grow 8-10 feet high with small yellow flowers appearing in late summer. They make good summer screen and need very little attention - the only pest that seems to be attracted to them usually is the odd wayward slug. However its not the stalks, leaves or flowers that are of interest to the vegetable lover - its the tubers that grow underground. These are harvested in the winter once the stalks have been killed off by frost and a single plant will easily generate tens of tubers in good soil. The tubers are rather knobbly but the plant is so prolific that it doesn't really matter if you just lop off the knobbles rather than trying to peel them carefully. They have a nutty, slightly sweet taste and can be cooked in most of the ways you can cook potatoes - fried as chips, boiled, mashed and (my personal favourite) roasted. Unlike potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes are usually treated as a perennial crop and grown in the same spot for many years at a time - just leaving a few tubers in the ground is enough to get a crop the next year. In fact getting all the tubers out of the ground is next to impossible for most people so make sure that you put them in a spot where you're happy for them to stay for a long time! A good mulch of compost over the bed once they have sprouted can give them some nutrients, cut down on weeds and also help keep the soil moist.

Another long term perennial is the asparagus. This plant has a short season and should only be harvested once it is three years old in order to allow it to build up its strength and root system. But then the fresh green spears are delicious lightly steamed and served with some melted knobs of butter and black pepper cracked over them - a single vegetable meal! Late March to early April is when one year old crowns are traditionally planted - the ground should be thoroughly cleared of perennial weeds and plenty of well rotted manure or compost dug in. Then dig a shallow trench and form a low mound along its centre line. Place the asparagus crown roots either side of this ridge and then recover with soil. Water in and once the shoots start to come up surround them with a mulch of cardboard covered with organic material - this will help suppress weeds and also conserve moisture later in the year.

If you sowed some late summer cabbage earlier in February or March and had them in the cold frame or greenhouse they'll be ready this month for hardening off and getting in the ground in the final growing positions (although avoid periods of really hard frost obviously). Main crop onion sets can be planted out now and, talking of main crops, second, early and main crop potatoes can also be popped in this month. If you've been chitting them they should have green stubby shoots on. However if they have been stored in too low a light level you might find you've got long white shoots on the tubers. These are quite brittle and are best snapped off close to the seed potato - don't worry about not having the little green shoots as the potato will still re-sprout and get going after a couple of weeks in the soil. If you put early potatoes in last month don't forget to check if they need ‘earthing up' - pulling the soil up over the plants to force the foliage to grow through it and help to keep the potato tubers away from the sunlight (which can turn them green and poisonous). If you get a chance to mow the lawn, the grass clippings can also be put over the ridges to help exclude the light.

Sowing

In other outdoor beds you can now get sowing some of the seeds you've hopefully acquired. Broad beans, beetroot, brussels sprouts, winter and savoy cabbages, calabrese, carrots, cauliflower, kohl rabi, leeks, lettuce, parsnips, peas, and swede are all candidates for sowing outside this month. Aim to sow a little every so often rather than a whole packet at once - such successional sowing means that the final crops will be spread out over a longer period rather than having bursts of ‘gluts'.

You can also get on with sowing more tender plants in the warmth indoors, which is handy if the April showers conspire against you. Tomatoes can be sown over seed trays from the start of the month and placed in a propagator or in a clear plastic bag in a window sill or greenhouse. As soon as the true (second) set of leaves appear they can be pricked out into individual pots of compost, which in good conditions may be as early as the end of the month if you get them in on April Fools Day. Sweetcorn can be sown two seeds to a pot to get a head start, as can squashes, pumpkins, marrows and courgettes. If you sowed any capsicums (sweet peppers), chillies or aubergines indoors in February or March also check if they need to be potted on into a larger pot (or into a bed in the green house). Celery seeds can be sown in a cold frame or unheated greenhouse. That should be plenty to keep you occupied whilst watching the rain patter against the windows!

Jim'll

photos (c) GTM 2009