April, hoping for sunshine, many plantings

March has been remarkably dull, one of the least sunny months I’ve ever recorded, at a time when we are hoping for the first rays of warm sunshine. Nonetheless, it has been mild (nights average 5C, days 11.5C), and growth is okay if not brilliant. There are tons of plantings you can make now, as in transplants 3 to 5 weeks old, and new sowings direct. See my newsletter update for those details.

Until late April, I cover all new seeds and transplants with fleece, as in the photo. While under cover, we have huge pickings of new salad from 6-7 month old plants.

Knowledge Packs

From the online courses, we have created these bundles of information. The two completely new ones are Pests, and Diseases.

The most common pest currently here, is slugs. No dig makes a huge difference by allowing higher populations of slug predators such as toads and ground beetles. Also it helps to have no weeds, so there are fewer leaves for slugs to hide under. We are also seeing many rabbit holes this spring, and fleece covers are great against them.

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