It is crunch time for carrots and pick your first salad leaves but keep an eye on the garlic
The spinach that was sown last month has grown strongly and any day now I will be able to pick the first, young leaves. The greenhouse is filled with trays of parsley and rocket and the carrots have sprouted in their large container.
These are a “Paris Market” variety that will produce small, crunchy roots – perfect for eating raw.
If you sowed salads last month, then sow more now to keep up a succession of leaves, and keep watering garlic, either in the ground or in pots, to make sure it doesn’t dry out.
Outdoor herbs, including lavender, are making fresh growth, so snip off some of this and pot it up in order to make more plants. Just remember to use free-draining compost and to set the cuttings around the edges of the pots, as this encourages better root growth.
If you have a greenhouse, then you might find it is rapidly becoming overcrowded. Open the door and the vents on mild days to keep the air inside circulating and to help cut down on the risk of pests and diseases. If the weather turns very warm, then soaking the floor will help to bring the temperature down again.
You can start hardening plants off now by moving them outdoors during the day and then returning them under cover in the evening. However, tender bedding plants will need to be kept indoors every night until there’s no more chance of frost, which won’t be until the end of the month. Larger plants, such as citrus and bananas, can be moved into place, but keep a sheet of fleece handy and cover them every time there’s a threat of temperatures falling overnight.
Meanwhile, a rise in temperature will encourage grass to grow quickly, but even if you like a tidy lawn, consider leaving even a small patch uncut in order to provide pollen and nectar for pollinators. It is tempting to remove the heads from dandelions as they appear, but they are an important food source, so try to curb the urge to banish them and instead leave them to flower first then mow over them before the seed heads develop.