April sees lots for Terry Walton to do at the allotment
This is one of my favourite months and there’s such a lot to get done
April is a wonderful month in the garden. The evenings, as well as lengthening, are also getting warmer, and as I work away in the late evening sun, what’s more pleasurable than to be accompanied by birdsong in the adjoining hedgerow? What better feeling than warming soil on your hands as you sow those first tiny seeds of the new season?
The greenhouse shelves are groaning under the weight of plants that’ll soon be moving to outside cold frames and, very soon, to open soil and maturity. No sooner are these plants on the move, than the staging is removed to allow the greenhouse borders to be prepared with new soil, plenty of well-rotted manure and compost to house this year’s crop of tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. Days of feasting are not far away now, when our plates will be filled with the fruits of our endeavours!
You’d think that adding well-rotted manure to your plot would be doing it lots of good. This is the hope, but have you noticed sometimes on newly-manured areas that some new weed seedlings emerge? This has happened to me this year. I fetched several bags from a stable and spread it on my second early potato patch. There, to my surprise, appeared some large, red leaves that I didn’t recognise at first. On closer investigation, I found they were seedlings of invasive Himalayan balsam! It goes to show that however careful you are as a gardener, it’s easy to bring an unwanted plant into your allotment.
At last, some of my early sowings can be set free on the plot and create some room in my greenhouse. Sowings of my ‘All the Year Round’ lettuce and ‘Kilazol’ cabbages are finally large enough to be planted out. The
lettuce is planted under a cloche to keep them out of the cool wind on my hillside, and will also help them to mature much quicker. The cabbage starts off my brassica patch, and is planted in a hole lined with lime, even though they’re club root resistant and packed around with compost to give them a flying start. These will be covered with Enviromesh.