Jobs for the Month

April 2024

Everything is a week or two behind this year because of the cold and wet weather we have been having. However, April is the time to get cracking in the allotment with sowings, plantings and weeding the top of the priority list.

Vegetables

  • Draw up soil around the base of peas and broad beans to support them and increase the rooting area.
  • Plant early potatoes when chits are 2cms long.
  • Earth up early potatoes when they have made 8” growth.
  • Second early and maincrop potatoes should be sown by the end of the month.
  • Plant out indoor-sown peas
  • Sow broad beans and peas.
  • Make direct successional sowings of beetroot, Swiss chard, lettuce, radish, summer spinach, spring onions, parsnips and turnips.
  • Sow early varieties of carrot when the ground has warmed up.
  • Sow indoors or in polytunnel Brussels sprouts, cabbage, early leeks, cucumbers, courgettes and peppers and sweet corn for later transplanting.
  • Sow indoors or in polytunnel climbing or dwarf beans for later transplanting.
  • Sow indoors or in polytunnel tender vegetables such as runner beans, squash and pumpkins.
  • Finish planting onions and shallots.
  • Plant up new asparagus and globe artichoke beds.
  • Cut asparagus late in the month (if ready!)
  • Sow herbs – oregano, thyme, dill, fennel and parsley from seed.
  • Cover radishes and turnips with horticultural fleece to protect against flea beetle.

Fruit

  • Harvest rhubarb by pulling a few stalks at a time. Put the leaves on the compost heap.
  • Once leaf buds open, start formative pruning of plum and cherry trees.
  • Use fleece to protect blossom of trees such as pears if frost is forecast.

General

Keep ground covered with fleece to warm up prior to planting seeds or transplanting.

  • Remove weeds before they flower to avoid seeding.
  • Keep grass paths manageable by regular cutting.

Flowers

  • Plant out indoor-sown sweet peas or direct sow outdoors.
  • Sow annuals to attract pollinating insects such as Nigella, marigolds, Cosmos, poppies.

Gardening for wildlife

  • Keep some wild patches (e.g. rotting wood,  nettles, etc.) around your allotment plot for wildlife to feed on and to hide in
  • Plant a wildflower mix to encourage bees and other pollinating insects
  • Try not to use inorganic fertilisers and pesticides