April Food Growing Calendar

Could there possibly be a busier month in the vegetable garden than April? If you look at the organic gardening blog for this month, you will not see as many posts, OMG, that's because none of us have time to WRITE!

If you do, we will be happy to post your articles on the blog with full credit to you and your website, if you have one. Simply let me know.

Sow

• Beets
• Broad Beans (Fava)
• Broccoli (early sprouting)
• French Beans (end of month)
• Runner Beans (protect)
• Brussels Sprouts
• Cabbage
• Carrots (early)
• Carrots (maincrop) mid month
• Summer Lettuce
• Onion seed (main crop)
• Spring Onions
• Peas (early and main crop)
• Summer Radish
• Sweet corn (protect)
• Tomatoes (indoor and protected)

Toward April's end, you can sow everything directly outside.

Plant

• Onion sets
• New potatoes
• Maincrop potatoes

Harvest

• Broccoli (late sprouting)
• Lettuce
• Radish

Chores

• Time to turn the compost pile!
• Cultivate, don't let your weeds get ahead of you.

Herbs

• Now is also the time to divide mint, chive, tarragon, and creeping thyme.
• Plant chervil, coriander, dill, rosemary, and summer savory outside after the last spring frost date for your area. Your local extension agent should be able to give you the date.
• The Dwarf Dill Fernleaf, is half the height of regular dill and more wind tolerant. It is slower to bolt to seed, and the flavor is excellent.
• If you harvest mint frequently, growth will be more vigorous. Be sure to grow it in a container to keep it from taking over your garden.
• For a handsome addition to your herb collection, try lovage Levisticum officinale, a hardy perennial with a sharp, but sweet, celery flavor. Leaves can be used sparingly in soups and salads stems can be blanched or eaten raw and seeds can be added to candies, bread and cakes.
• Start herb seeds indoors in moist medium. Place in bright, indirect light and move to a sunny window when germination begins. When the seedlings are 2 to 3 inches tall, transplant into peat pots for the garden or into clay pots for use on your terrace or balcony. Some herbs easily grown for transplanting include chives, sage, sweet marjoram, basil, summer savory and parsley.
• Bronze-leaved fennel Foeniculum vulgare 'Atropurpureum', an anise-scented herb that grows to 4 feet tall, looks great in the perennial border with tall, red- or white-flowered phlox or tall, silver-leaved perennials, including artemisia.

Vegetables

• Plant perennial vegetables like asparagus, rhubarb, horseradish etc.
• If you already have an established asparagus planting thin the plants by harvesting until the spear size decreases.
• Plant second early and maincrop potatoes (as in March). Sow French beans for early harvest and outdoor tomatoes under glass. Continue sowing celery and celeriac indoors as in March.
• At the end of the month, sow runner beans, sweet corn, marrows, courgettes, squashes, pumpkins and outdoor cucumbers under glass and outdoors.
• Plant out peppers, cucumbers, aubergines and tomatoes in pots and growing bags in the heated greenhouse.
• As plants that have been direct seeded begin to sprout be sure to thin them out to avoid overcrowding.

Fruit

• Cut out all the dead canes from your Raspberry patch. The new canes that will bear this year's fruit should have new, swollen buds along the edges.
• If you covered your strawberry beds during the winter, now is the time to uncover them.

 

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