Sowing...This month sees the start of a very busy time in the gardening year with lots to plant in both the seed beds and in pots.
In the seed beds we have sown: spinach, peppers, parsnips (just in case the ones planted last month don't germinate), coriander, chop suey greens, leeks, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage and broccoli.
In pots are:
basil, cucumber, courgette, squash, pumpkin, mange tout peas, dwarf French beans, broad bean, tomato, radish and salad (spicy lettuce, radish, rocket and other leaves).
Harvesting...We are now starting to harvest the first asparagus of the season (top right)! Just a few spears to start with, we know that by the end of the month we will have more than enough for most meals - delicious steamed and served with homemade goats' cheese. The greens are now turning to seed and flowering (bottom right) but we are still managing to harvest a few leaves - great stir fried!
Jobs... Making sure that all the planting is labelled and catalogued in the polytunnel records, so that we know which plants are which and if we need to re-sow if a seed does not germinate. Watering is vital now as the pots will dry out very quickly in the heat of the polytunnel, sometimes we need to water the pots and the seed beds morning, lunch time and evening. You can see the potatoes starting to appear (far middle bed) in the photo below.
Comments... It is really difficult to judge just how many seeds to plant as the produce is only for us and visitors. Too many plants of one kind mean too much of that particular vegetable and less room for others. Our rule of thumb is to plant three seeds for each plant we want - one for the pests (slugs, caterpillars and aphids), one for the weather and one for us. Planning ahead is vital, we only really need about thirty leeks a year, and a similar number of parsnips - it is pointless planting more, particularly the leeks as some may be made into soup, but if we have far too many they will becomposted as the goats do NOT like leeks!.
April in the polytunnel
 |
Our first asparagus of the season...
...and the last of the greens.
|