The Vegetable Plot - April

And so, to seed

If you have a greenhouse you can start dwarf French beans and pot on for early picking. Sow two seeds to a pot in John Innes No. 1 compost with a little bottom heat if you can. You can either let them grow to maturity in the greenhouse or harden them off to plant out in late May. 

Similarly, early varieties of leek can be sown indoors in late March/early April for planting outdoors in May. 

Peas can be sown in a strip of ground covered with polythene or cloches in early March but you can start this month and make succession sowing three weeks apart using a first-early variety. 

Begin with digging a good amount of compost or well-rotted manure into your vegetable bed. Around the middle of the month, you can get sowing carrots, turnips, lettuces, radishes, spring onions, kohl rabi, summer cabbages and cauliflowers. 

It might only be spring but if you want Brussels sprouts, savoy cabbages, winter cauliflowers, curly kale and sprouting broccoli for your autumn and Christmas dinners then seeds need sowing this month.

• Plant and protect early and second-early and maincrop potatoes.  
• Harden off plants grown in cold frames
• Train and top-dress early cucumbers grown in frames. 
• Start leeks in a greenhouse.
• Sow globe artichokes.
• Plant onion sets
• Feed spring cabbages
• Thin carrot seedlings