It's been a hell of a week hence it's take me until today to post, but here I am!
I hope you're all having a lovely weekend? I spent most of yesterday outside in the garden which was pure delight as the sun was shinning and everything in the garden is really starting to take off.
Here is my April Garden update:
One problem with my WordPress account is that I'm fast running out of free space so most garden photo's will be found either over on the FmN Instagram or Picassa accounts. April is the month for sowing seeds, potting up seedlings and keeping a close eye on the perennial plants for signs of pests or diseases.April Wildlife:
For the first time ever we have had finches come to visit our seed hangers. Chaffinches and goldfinches appear to have rather taken with the seed that I have been putting out for the past two yrs. It's quite exciting to see them and along with new sightings they bring with them new sounds to the garden, usually around early evening, which I think is very cool.
I happened to look up at the small insect hotel I added to the south facing (last yr) and happened to see a solitary bee go into it. This is great news because it means not only is the hotel in the right spot but it's being used.
April Cultivation:
- Quick tips: Back in January I sat down and made a few lists and ideas on what I wanted to grow in our gardens this year, taking into account space, time spent and food that I love to eat. Having that list has proved to be really useful because I was able to buy all the necessary seeds required without over doing it (a gardeners obsession), know exactly what I need to sow/plant when and be able to plan time to do it rather than rushing everything as and when I suddenly remembered. Or worse still start sowing everything too early!
The strawberry bed is now uncovered and the plants are taking off. I haven't fed or supplied them with anything so still have that to do, with tomato feed.
The garlic/onion bed is also growing well apart from one small minor issue - I have raspberry shoots popping up all over the bed even though there have never been any raspberries growing in the bed! The problem has arisen from the canes growing nearby that have amazingly sent out new shoots, tunnelling and growing through 60cm high beds! As much as I love raspberries I don't want them growing in any raised beds. I would add lime to the bed but it might alter the state for the onions and garlic to grow, so instead it's just a case of pulling the shoots out until I can deal with the potential 'weed' problem later on.
In the front beds, the potatoes are taking ages to grow. In fact not much growth from any of the chitted potatoes so far and they have been in for a while. I am presuming it's the fluctuating temperatures we've had that might be causing issue.
Next to them, in the other bed, sugar-snap pea seeds have been sown and broad bean plants that I had sown in February were planted in.
Alongside the front beds the rhubarb is making gains (after I thought I'd killed it so big up the rhubarb!), the raspberry canes I planted are starting to unfurl their leaves, although with my new gained experience of learning just how far and wide raspberries will travel I'm wondering if planting them in this area was such a great idea. And the cherry tree, which suffered greatly from aphids last year has been given a healthy dose of powdered nutrients.
I was reading the other day that cherry trees don't grow well in clay soils. In fact I think the termed used was " cherry trees won't grow in clay soil ". I wondered if this was the problem with my one so I've dug all around the tree (which is still more sapling and less tree than it ought to be), in the hopes it's loosens the soil enough to allow more drainage and root growth.
In the grow house there is a multitude of sowings, cucumbers, tomatoes, aubergines, kale, pumpkin, and basil either ready for potting up or just poking their heads through the compost.
Indoors a few aubergine plants, tomato plants and chilli plants are being kept in the warm because the night temperatures are still too cold for these little guys.
On the patio the hops have shoot up out of the ground and are making headway up the trellis. I was expecting to get six shoots this year but looks like I'll have four. This is fine though because keeping four shoots from entangling is enough work!
April Sowings:
Seeds still to sow for April:
I was planning to sow the endive last month but this is as good a month as any to get started.
Also I've been given some rather lovely heirloom peas to sow. I feel a great honour to have been given some and I intend to give them the best go I can. Having already sown some peas already I'll sow these and grow them in a container later on.
I'll let you know how I get on.
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What are you hoping to get up to in your garden this month? Are there any particular crops you can't wait to start growing? I'm curious to fix a name for my garden and can't seem to come to one word conclusion. Would you call it a garden? self-sufficient land? Potager? Maybe I need a new word. What do you call your patch of crop growing ground?
