EP220- What To Sow In The April Vegetable Garden & Other Gardening Jobs.

In this weeks episode John looks at what we can sow in the April vegetable garden and other gardening jobs. 
April is the month when seed sowing is at its peak with lots on the sowing list for this month.  We can begin sowing and planting outside once conditions allow. In some areas and especially in colder parts of Ireland frosts are still prevalent and will be until perhaps mid May so again proceed with caution.  If planting out veg later in the month if possible give it some form of protection from the elements using fleece or bio-netting.

Some seeds drop off the sowing list this month and later in the month tender crops can be sown including sweet corn, courgette, squash, French beans etc. Successional sowing can be continued on a regular basis.

 Join us as we arm you with the strategies and timing to sow and grow for an abundant season, regardless of the weather's whims. If you’ve fallen a bit behind, we've got your back, revealing how to catch up on planting aubergines and peppers in the greenhouse. Discover the joys of succession planting, ensuring your garden remains a cornucopia of fresh veggies, herbs, and flowers. Plus, learn why now is the perfect moment to invest in the future by sowing perennials and biennials that promise vibrant colour in the coming year.

This episode isn't just about what goes in the ground; it's about reaping the rewards on your plate. Let's talk about my unsung heroes of the vegetable plot – onions from seed, chard and more.  We don't overlook the aromatic charm of fresh herbs. I'll also share my secrets for a continuous supply of cut-and-come-again greens and the monthly sowing schedule that keeps your herb garden lush. Tune in for a treasure trove of practical advice that'll turn this month’s gardening into next season’s feast.

Join the Master My Garden grow your own food course which gives you step by step guide to growing all your own food. Monthly sowing guides, videos tutorials and much more for just €97 with lifetime access. You can join here
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Until next week  
Happy gardening  
John 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

how's it going, everybody, and welcome to episode 220 of master mcgarran podcast. Now, this week's episode being the first friday of april, we're looking at what to sew in the month of april, and these episodes prove to be highly popular, I think, because it sort of seems to keep people on track, I guess, or gives them a little reminder of what can and should be sown during the month ahead. The last month, as we've said at the start of the previous month, has been, yet again, march has been a really wet month and we're up to the first week of April is almost done and the trend has continued Some nice days, actually quite pleasant bright days, bit of sunshine at last, which is good to see, but certainly, from a rainfall perspective, there is no real sign of it stopping and in fact this weekend we're we're due here to have a storm with high winds and and quite a bit of rainfall in certain areas. So there's no doubt that we have had more than our fair share of of rain over the last four, five, six months and it does seem to be never-ending, and I know a lot of people are getting frustrated with it, you know. On a on a more serious note, for gardeners it's very, very frustrating, a little bit irritating, and you know we're all itching to sort of get outside and get into the open ground and feel the warmth of the, of the of the spring, and you're looking for a bit of dry weather, bright days, and it has been frustrating to not be getting too much of that. We've still been able to do bits and pieces but generally speaking, the ground is, you know, extremely wet and definitely not workable and in terms of sowing seed, certainly around here, like you'd have no hope of sowing seed in the next couple of weeks unless we get a bit of, you know, warm, dry weather and a bit of a wind maybe to dry up the place a bit. So it has been frustrating.

Speaker 1: 2:14

On a more serious side, you know, obviously farmers and farming and a lot of food crops that need to get into the ground, you know, timing wise, they really do need to be getting into the ground very, very soon. And you know there's a lot of a backlog Now, it's not the first time we've seen this, you know, and things do eventually get done and so on, but it just condenses things and puts a, you know, creates a lot of pressure on people, a lot of pressure on farmers. And, yeah, it's far from ideal. You know the conditions are far from ideal From a gardening perspective. The sowing guide for this month is similar to last month, but we will have a few things that will have dropped off this month, so things that we would have needed to sow early because they require that long growing season thinking of things like aubergines, peppers, chili peppers, that sort of thing. So if you want to grow those this year and at this stage, if you haven't got them sown, you may get away with it, but ideally at this stage you'll be looking to get some plants and get them into your greenhouse because they require that length of growing season. Other than that, a couple of things come onto the list this month. Some of the more tender stuff that we saw later that day come onto the list, but it's quite a big list. But it's quite a big list and I suppose the months of April, May and June are kind of the biggest months in terms of the variety that we can actually sow. So as we go through this, you'll see that a lot of them are quite similar to last month and for things that we're successionally sowing, you know they're going to repeat on the list over the next few months. They're going to repeat on the list over the next few months and, as I've said you know several times before, it is important to to try and keep sowing and because what happens is miss. So miss sowings at this stage are missed harvests or missed little windows of harvest down the line. So it really is important to keep sowing.

Speaker 1: 4:23

A lot of flowers can still can can be sown as well. A lot of the annual flowers can still be sown and it's a great month to start with things like dahlias and so on. Personally, I will be sowing perennials as well this month. Definitely won't get any flower from them this year and but they will germinate and I'll create a good, strong, healthy plant that will be planted out, you know, in the coming months and then going into next year, obviously we'll have flower. Some of the biennials as well, the foxgloves and so on Wrong interior, it's the wrong time of the year to sow them, but they will germinate and I am going to sow them. And, again, I won't have flower this year, but I will have next year. So, yeah, there's lots that I will be sowing this month, but to get into the, you know the vegetable and herb sort of sowing guide. Again, as I said, a lot of these will be a duplicate of what you would have seen or heard me speaking about last month. So the first one on the list is spring onions Again, continue to sow that that's, you know, one that we will be successively sowing and one that will be pretty much will be sown for the next good few months. So it'll appear on on the on the list every month.

Speaker 1: 5:31

Cabbage we're still working with early varieties, so maybe the pointed heads you know it likes it a hispy or a greyhound cabbage and some of this early summer cabbage as well, the roundhead cabbage. You're. You're still sowing the, the cabbage, one, one seed per per module in the tray and then you plant them out. The other thing to note this month is that the length of time from sowing to planting out will get a bit shorter. All going well. We're going to get a lot more sunlight over the next couple of weeks. Temperatures will rise quite a bit and that means that you know seed sown can produce a good quality seedling fit to go outside within kind of four weeks, whereas prior to this, you know, back through March and you know, certainly at the end of February, any that you were sown. You're looking at kind of six, seven weeks before you'd have a decent seedling to be to be planted out, but at this time of the year that speeds up quite a bit. So just watch for that in terms of your, your successions.

Speaker 1: 6:33

Next one on the list is calabrese. So again, you're going to try and work with early varieties if possible. Same goes for cauliflower. So again, early summer varieties, onions. Then this month is the last chance, and kind of by the middle of the month you'd want to be doing that. So I have sown my white onions, but I do need to get some red onion seed, because I thought I had some and I don't and I don't, and so I'll sow those, but definitely in the next kind of week that needs to be done.

Speaker 1: 7:01

Anything past mid-april is getting a little bit late in terms of sowing seed. Now you can still obviously plant sets, so don't panic if you don't have your seeds on or you don't get it sown by the middle of the month. There's still an opportunity to grow onions this year, but you'll be doing it from sets rather than from seed and personally I just find that the seed, seed, grown onions turn out a lot better here for me. Less bolting, they definitely store better. That has been really evident. Like I'm still harvesting or eating perfect onions that have just been hanging in the shed for the last few months and they're, they're, they're perfect, still absolutely perfect, and they store. They seem to store a lot better than anything I've grown previously from from sets.

Speaker 1: 7:47

So next one on the list then is spinach. Again, this is a kind of successional one. As we go up through the months it'll be on the list every month. But you'll find that as we get up into the warmer months of may and june that that will run to seed quite, quite quickly. So you'll need to sow it sort of more regular at that stage, at this stage of the year. I'll so do one sowing a month and that'll allow me to harvest it, because it's not running to seed that quickly at this stage. It'll allow me to harvest quite a bit off it before we'll try to run to seed. But as we go forward into may and june you'll want to be a little bit more regular every kind of two weeks.

Speaker 1: 8:31

Next one on the list is leeks. I haven't sown mine yet, but I will do one big sowing of those as one big sowing of those and then maybe a second smaller sowing later on in the summer and again at this stage you'll be looking, working with an early variety and then later on you'll be looking at the overwintering type varieties. Next one on the list is broad beans. So they can be sown this month, one seed into a module tray. There's radish. Again. This will appear on the on every list that we do for the rest of the year basically.

Speaker 1: 9:00

But for me personally, I take it on and off the the sowing. So I have some sort at the moment. I'll harvest those, I'll enjoy those, but then I'll take them off again because I just don't like having them all the time. You get a bit fed up with them, I find. So they're nice for a little change every now and again. So add them in, maybe every other month or something like that.

Speaker 1: 9:25

I would add in a sowing of those just for a little bit of variety. Same goes for the Milan purple top or the white onions, the small ones. I like those but I don't like them all the time. So again, I'll do kind of random sewings of them here and there and we'll enjoy them when they're there but don't want them all the time, so little random sewings of those. Next one is Swedes. I won't do a sewing of those until quite a bit later and when I do the sowing I'll do quite a big sowing and they'll be what I'll harvest, kind of through late autumn and winter time, and at that time of year I would like you know swede quite a bit. But at this time of the year or as we enter the summer it's not something that I'm kind of looking for that often. So it's more of an arty, warmer kind of winter veg. So I will sow some early, but the majority of what I'll sow will be late in the time.

Speaker 1: 10:24

Next one is lettuce. So again this will appear on the monthly list. So lots of different types. You can grow your butterheads or your icebergs, but a really good one is you know the cut and come or the mixed leaves, so something that has a mix of you know lettuce leaves, rocket mustard, those type things and cut and come. So harvest what you want and then it'll keep coming. Eventually it'll run to seed. But you should be able to get you know a good few weeks out of that before it will run to seed and then we move into kind of herbs. So some of these have been on the list, you know, in the previous months. We're looking at things like coriander, dill, shervel, and they're repeat sown. So once a month you will do a sowing of these and small and often is what you're looking for here. Then this one comes onto the list for the first time. This and it's what you're looking for here. Then this one comes onto the list for the first time this month. It's basil. So the temperatures are coming up quite a lot. You'll still need to. If you're doing it in a greenhouse, you will need to give it a little bit of heat. You know a heat, a heated mat or a heated propagator initially and you're going to sow kind of three or four cell seeds in a cell and then plant them out into the greenhouse. And basil, I'll do probably one, maybe two sowings over the next sort of six to eight weeks, and that should see me out. Then They'll continue to grow and we'll continue to harvest off those pretty much for the rest of the year, depending on the germination rate. Sometimes you can find you get sporadic germination rates, but if it, if the germination germination rates are good, on these I'll do probably only two sowings, maximum three. Then, moving on further onto the list, we're looking at parsley again. This one's on the list again this month. It's biennial, so you don't need to sow very regularly. I'll do one sowing a year, parsley, quite a bit of it, plant it into the tunnel and then, like I'm harvesting currently off last year's sowing and so I've been harvesting off those all winter, at some stage during the year they'll try to run the seed, but I'll have the next batch coming on and so that's the plan that you always have some in the pipeline. Next one on the list I actually personally don't really grow it. I have grown it before, not a massive fan. Um is pak choy. The reason I I don't grow it is I find that chard actually just is just so much less troublesome but quite similar in taste to it. Now I know people will use it in stir fries and so on, but I use chard in stir fries and I find that it kind of gives that same, you know that same. You have the leafy veg, the leafy part of it, and then you have the the kind of solid crunchy stem of it. So I just find chard is a better one for me. So that brings me on to chard, which is on the list this month and again I think I've mentioned it before one of the best vegetables you can grow. It's just so versatile, so you get so much from it for so little effort, which is what I really like about it. So you sow one seed into a module, you plant it, it becomes a good big plant, but you can harvest off that for such a long period of time. You don't need huge amounts of it, but really tasty looks quite well. If you drop it into, you know, the middle of a perennial border or into a flowerbed, it looks well, doesn't? Doesn't look out of place there, and you can still harvest off it. And you're quite quite tough as well, doesn't, doesn't? Uh, it's not real tender like some of the other ones that you might be trying to grow. So it takes a little bit of hardship. And, yeah, without a doubt, one of the best vegetables you can grow coming onto the list for the first time this month, because temperatures are rising, is cucumber. I'll just do one sowing at ease. Two to three, maximum four plants will give. Give me all the cucumbers I need. In fact, a little bit more than I'd need. So I don't sow a lot of those, but just a couple, and one seed in an eight centimeter pot needs heat and is a bit tender, so just watch that and make sure that you're giving it heat or a heat and matter a heated propagator at the start. Tomatoes we're getting. You know we can sow away this month, but then you'd want to be sort of and you can still sow actually into May. But I would be saying definitely this month you need to be getting them going. Try and get your plants as big as possible before you plant them into the greenhouse. And you typically plant them into the greenhouse and you typically plant them into the greenhouse around the time when your last frost is, which typically around here is the third, about the third week of may or thereabouts. So at that stage I want to be getting good, strong plants into the ground and have them up and running. Quite quickly just means that you get longer out of your season. You're able to get know you're not waiting for them to come later on in the time. So you get them going, get them going strong, get them going early. Funny enough, I did a sowing of tomatoes in February and I got some really nice varieties from a listener in France, and I sowed those a full month later than the ones that I sold at the end of February and I pricked them all out there just a couple of days ago. And the ones that I sold in March are every bit as good, every bit as strong, every bit as vigorous as the ones I've sold in the previous month. So it just goes to show that really and truly sowing it's, it's when you feel that heat of the of the spring that you know that's, that's when things start to grow and the light levels increase. And I think that has been a big thing that we've been missing through this spring is the because of we've had so many dark, rainy days. The sunlight levels just haven't been there and we haven't got that sunshine. And the seedlings really do need that sunshine, that heat, uh, to grow and grow vigorously. So just goes to show, like I could have skipped that, that sowing in February wouldn't have had any effect. The only thing I have done since has been minding them and minding them. But the ones I sold, you know, a full month later are every bit as strong at this stage. So it's not always beneficial while we're all itching to get going. It's not always beneficial to get s all itching to get going. It's not always beneficial to get sown early. Next one on the list again comes onto it for the first time. Another tender one is courgettes. Again, you don't need a lot of these. I will sow maximum two plants because you get enough off those over a long period of time. In fact you nearly get too much off it and you will end up with a gloss, as we we've spoke about on the podcast before. So for me here just a couple of those will do. Don't need a lot of them at all. Again, next one on the list comes on for the first time this month. Again, a tender one is sweet corn and I do two sowings of sweet corn typically. First one I'll do sowing and plant it into the tunnel. Do a second one outside in a sunny place, as sunny a place as you can, as you can give it outside. Make sure that's a little bit sheltered as well, because obviously they're tall and can get blown around. So you want them in a relatively sheltered spot. Next one on the list again comes on for the first time is french beans. Again, they like heat, a little bit like the, the other ones that we've just mentioned, and I will do a few sowings of these. The dwarf ones I find, you know, really handy because they're they don't need any. They don't require any staking or caning or training, they'll just the little small bush. You get plenty from them. And lovely, lovely french beans, you know quite quickly as well. That doesn't take a huge amount of time at this stage of the year to to get a crop off. Those climbing ones are brilliant as well, and it will be so in some of those. And so that's french beans on the list for the first time this month. Next next on the list is pumpkins and squash. I'll sow both of pumpkin mostly for the girls here for Halloween, and squash obviously for eating and storing. And I do one sowing of those and get a nice crop off them and then just store them, eat some of them later on the year but then store as well. So next one on the list I haven't had huge success with in the past, and I think it's mostly because my tunnel just doesn't get warm enough because of the vented sides in it, and that's melon. So I will be sowing that again and I'll be trying my best to get it going, because I think it would be a lovely one and certainly one that I could get the girls to eat here, and yeah, we'll have another go at it this year. But I do think I just don't get enough of heat in that tunnel. Just because of the vented sides I'm not getting that real intense heat that that melons would like. Next on the list this month is peas, and we mentioned them previously just in terms of growing them for shoots, but this month you can start to grow them for the actual pods and the pea and yeah, I'll be sowing those this month. Next one on the list is celery and again, I will do maybe three sowings, maximum four sowings of celery a year. I don't need a lot of it. So very hard to, or can be very hard to, germinate. So make sure you're working with good seed, make sure you're you're heating them and don't cover the seeds. They this, this. They germinate on the surface. So you have to watch for that. And but again, for me, not many sowings of these a year, just maybe two, three sowings a year. Next one on the list is same kind of same kind of thing celeriac. I only do one sewing of that one, sewing that later on the time. A little bit like swedes, I like to have them in the winter time, uh, to eat in the winter time. So I do kind of a summer sewing on those and, yeah, they'll be. I'll probably sew them in may, but I won't do them in in in april. Next one on the list is carrots. Again they were on the list last month, but this time what we should be able to do, if it ever stops raining, is get outside towards the end of the month and direct sow these into the ground. So hopefully, as I said, the rain stops and we can do that. Next and the final seed I have kind of on the veg and herb list is parsnips, and this comes onto the list for the first time again, the carrots we would have previously sowed or earlier. Earlier lists would have said to plant or to sow them directly into the polytunnel or under cover outside. But now we're looking at outside and parsnips come onto the list because you can't really grow those in in a greenhouse. So, parsnips, make sure you're working with fresh seed again and we're direct sowing if it stops rain. So I have every confidence that we, that you know that it will, because you look over the over the years and you look at the rainfall month by month for for your area and you will always see variations. So you know I mentioned already that february last year was extremely dry and warm. February this year was wet. March last year was wet. This march was wet. But when you look at it over a kind of a four to five month period, you know any four to five month period within the year and you take the same four or five months of the previous year and the previous year and so on, and you take the same four or five months of the previous year and the previous year and so on, and you look at the rainfall averages across those four months. They typically don't vary massively. Now you will occasionally get anomalies. So I don't know whether this is wishful thinking or you know if this is, but it is it. It does ring true generally that there doesn't be huge amount of variation over a period of time. So, based on that thinking, we've had this prolonged wet spell. So I expect that you know over the next month, as we move through april, the weather, the rain will stop. Hopefully it's going to get warm and we theoretically should have that for for a nice period of time, and that's my hope. Uh, that certainly happens a lot, where you get, you know where you get this period of of weight and then it gets followed by a really nice period. So that's what we're all hoping for, that's what we're all praying for, that's what we're looking for, you know, from even if we weren't talking about gardening, just from bringing kids to football matches and all of that day-to-day stuff that we do. We just would like a little break from the rain, if possible. Then elsewhere in the garden there's still, you know, lots more we can be doing in terms of seed. So, again I mentioned at the start, I'll be sowing annual flowers this month. I already have some cosmos, so the sweet peas, so they've marigolds, so I'll be selling a lot more annuals this month. I'll also be selling perennials. Again, I've said I'd no deal one flower this year, but I'm not looking for that, just looking to build up stock of a few for new flower beds that I'm doing, or revamping a few flower beds, so the sowing of those will be done now as well, even though it's not theoretically the right time of year to be doing it. But we can. We can, are the best time of the year to be doing it. But we can still sow, no issues other jobs. You can still plant early and second early potatoes outside. Once we get a little bit of a period of warmth and dry, main crops varieties can be planted in some areas of the country. Definitely won't plant them here. It will be at least the end of this month, if not into May, before I do that, and again, it will have to have been. If there's a period of dry weather, period of dry weather, period of warm weather beforehand, onion sets and shallots can still be planted this month. And so you know, if you've missed or you're not going to get a sowing of onion seeds done, you can grow them this year from sets. Then, in terms of your beds, while I'm saying that it's wet, definitely the no-dig beds are remaining available, a lot drier than a typical bed. So while they're not, while they're not very dry, they're not dry enough for sowing seeds into, yet they they certainly will be quite quickly. And you know, once you get an inch or two dry in the top which which again happens quite quickly with with no dig beds then you'll be able to get outside and get sowing. Sort of a follow-on from that then is at this stage of the year you will start to get some weed germination in your beds. Just make sure you give them a light hoe when we get a dry day. Give them a light hoe, and a couple of a couple of light hoes like that mean that you'll sort of stay on top of any potential weed problems that could be building up. The other thing to really watch out for and it's a consequence of all the wet weather and the mild weather that we have is that, from what I can see, from what I can hear from from other gardeners, what I can see here in my own garden, there there is going to be huge slug and snail pressure this year. It happens every so often where there's kind of, you know, a really big slug year, and I feel that that that's you know it's building to to be that way this year. I know a lot of early crops are very vulnerable to slugs and snail this year because the populations are just high there generally. So that's something to watch out for, you know, in terms of what you can do, but probably do you know a full episode over the next couple of weeks on that because there is a lot of people, it seems to be one of the recurring challenges for gardeners and so, yeah, definitely I'll do something on that in the next couple of weeks, but just watch out for that. And uh, yeah, especially when you start putting out young seedlings in the next few weeks, just watch for slugs and snails. Initially anyway, then after that it's just a case of again to remind you that try not to miss sowings. Set a day, set a schedule for sowing, because missed sowings will be missed. Harvest later on in the time. Keep sowing, because missed sowings will be missed. Harvest later on in the time. Keep keep sowing. I'm sure at this stage there's lots of full window sills, full propagation areas in people's houses and people's greenhouses, but yeah, we'll start to clear a bit of space as we get the good planting later on in the month. And uh, yeah, there's lots to be doing, lots to be looking forward to and hopefully, as I say, we're getting towards the the end of this kind of poor period of weather and we have something to look forward to and then we can really get growing and really get going at everything in the garden. So that's been this week's episode, again, the usual one for the start of the month. You know it's a sowing guide what people can sow. For any of you that are on the Grow your own food course, the full and complete sewing guide is uploaded there. That includes the, the seed that we're sewing, the sewing method, the planting out location and the timing approximately of getting those planted out. So, yeah, all of that is uploaded onto the Grow your Own Food course. And a request from some of the people going through the course was a spacing guide, and that's also added there this week as well. So any of you that still want to join onto that course, it's still plenty beneficial €97 for lifetime access. So, no matter what extra modules get added and there will be lots of extra modules getting added you will have access to that for the lifetime of the course. So, really good practical information Over five hours of videos teaching you how to set up beds, how to sow seeds, how to plant out All really practical, useful stuff that will help you grow your own fruit, vegetables and herbs. So yeah, link in the show notes or visit my website, wwwmastermygardencom, and you'll see that course there 97 euro for a lifetime access. And that's been this week's episode. I hope that that sewing guide helps you, helps you stay on track with your sewing for the month of april, hopefully by the time we're back doing this next month. We're talking about glorious weather, long days and warm temperatures and lots of sunshine and not so much rain. So, but either ways, we we can't control that. So for now we just continue as it is and until the next time, happy gardening.