Rekha’s allotment: from plot to plate

Growing season is in full gear and Rekha is busy prepping beds and sowing seeds. She also shares her lemongrass dressing for a Thai salad

Am I alone in thinking April is the most thrilling month in a gardener’s diary? Everything, including the weeds, seems to come alive the minute the warming sun rays hit the ground. This month, I really wish we had more than 24 hours in a day. There’s so much to do!

There are beds to prep, and seeds to sow – both in the greenhouse and direct outdoors, where I’m sowing cool season crops like peas, lettuce, radishes and spring onions. Then there’s seedlings to pot on, and I can finally plant out the onion and garlic seedlings, which I’ve kept waiting over the winter months tucked away in coldframes.

The next task on the list (as if

I didn’t have enough to do) is planting out my first early seed potatoes, which have been chitting in the greenhouse. Once planted, I’ll put horticultural fleece over the area to keep the soil warm.

While the vegetable beds are my main focus, I also need to spend a few days clearing and sorting out the flower border that runs along the path next to the plot. I created this to bring in pollinators and other beneficial insects.

Planning over – time to get to work, before someone mentions April showers!

Rekha’s lemongrass plants produce more shoots in spring, the perfect time for harvesting them

Rekha Mistry is a keen veg grower who loves to try exotic varieties and experiment with them in the kitchen. She appeared in the 2015 BBC Two series, The Big Allotment Challenge