April can be a mixed bag of weather and often unpredictable, making visits to the allotment difficult if you don’t have a shed or greenhouse in which to retreat. Nights are chilly and frosts are still troublesome so don’t risk planting out anything tender. There’s plenty to be getting on with this month, such as sowing or planting hardy crops outside. If it’s particularly chilly where you are cover areas of soil you want to sow with cloches, warm soil increases germination success. Keep a roll of horticultural fleece to hand, you never know when you may need it.
More jobs that can be tackled this month:
- Harvest the first asparagus spears of the year
- Plant asparagus crowns or sow seed undercover
- Sow parsnip, carrots and broad beans direct outside if the soil is warm, or use a tunnel cloche
- Get areas of soil ready for sowing by covering with cloches
- Erect runner bean poles
- Plant second early or main crop potatoes
- Pot on tomato and chilli seedlings
- Keep sowing crops such as peas, spring onions, radish and salad crops for a continuous harvest
- Harden off young plants raised indoors before planting out. Move them outside during warm days and then back in at night
- Keep the hoe busy!
- Make the bees happy – sow wildflower seed mix direct where they are to flower
- Harvest established early rhubarb for those warming crumbles
- Plant out onion sets if you didn’t do it last month
- Sow some flowers such as sunflowers and other half-hardy annuals undercover
Allotment Haven 