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Mid April 2022 sowing, planting, effects of covers, frost and pest damage, spring specials, no dig mulching, and storing vegetables

Written by

Charles Dowding

Last Updated

April 16, 2022

Spring is rushing in. I hope you enjoy my tips from Homeacres, and a look at what we are up to. The featured photo is morning of 16th March, the lettuce cover briefly removed

We have started an offer of weekly advice for £5/month, emailed to your inbox every Friday. It’s free for schools, community gardens and allotment groups. The response has been very positive: do take a look, with a ‘free’ first week.

‘The newsletter was excellent and I will be recommending it to all my gardening friends’ – Ann Donnelly

Showing course participants the pallet compost heaps, which have a nice balance of some heat and then worms

Trial beds on 13th April with no dig front and dig behind, 4 weeks since planted with lettuce, carrots (sown), fennel, onion, pea, spinach, beetroot, potato, radish, potato

Charles with turnips in the bed after removing fleece, first harvest on 13th April, Sweet Marble and Tokyo Cross F1

Sowing

Now if not done already is top time for planting potatoes. You can cut them in pieces as long as there is one eye or shoot or chit – all are the same name for one potential plant. I often am planting with 2-4.

Leeks and chard and basil are in season to sow. Leeks, soon! T
And cucurbits. They need as much warmth as you can find, to help with germination, especially if seeds are not as fresh as one might hope. Even packets of seeds you have recently bought may contain older and less powerful seed.

The new CD30 and CD15 are growing nice plants and are proving popular, see more in this video.

Cucumbers sown mid April in a CD60 and we ran out of seed to finish the tray!

Potatoes laid out to plant and I cut some in half, Mayan Scrapa — Potatoes laid out to plant and I cut some in half, these are Mayan Scrapa

Seven days since sown, these melon have been on the hotbed in my greenhouse — Seven days since sown, these melons have been on the hotbed in my greenhouse

New plantings using covers

My growing method for early spring is to start sowing under cover in late winter and this year that has really paid off. Because I’m noticing now that there are quite a few little slugs and a risk of damage, compared to earlier transplanting. However it’s not always straightforward and that’s why we use covers a lot, see video from April last year. I still don’t know of any non-plastic covers but at least these ones last for many years.

Sometimes we support them, sometimes not, the photos give you an idea. Radish with the carrots help to push up the fleece, see my Skills book which has a chapter about using covers.

Lettuce under fleece and pushing it up in the small garden, 3 weeks planted

23 days since sowing, carrots and radish just starting to grow a bit, suffered the cold nights

Calabrese & cabbage under Thermacrop, one month after transplanting

These fennel and kohlrabi are under old fleece with holes, transplanted a month earlier

We have been cutting wild rocket for two weeks from transplanting in February after sowing September in the greenhouse and keeping in pots over winter

Mid March and it's 25 days since we transplanted these lovely lettuce. — Mid March and it’s 25 days since we transplanted these lovely lettuce – the wood is to support fleece and prevent frost damage. The cover is going back on. To right are overwintered salad onions and-was for shoots.

Few weeds no dig

The photo is Anna in her soon-to-be new garden where she is mulching on top of grass. Follow her in the weekly when what how.

See my new video on needing less time and energy with suitable tools.

In January we covered some very strong pasture growth with black plastic, plus some compost on the grass so the plastic is always on top, never buried. It’s an easy and quick way to diminish strong weeds before planting. In this case we shall even plant potatoes and winter squash through the plastic, which will save time dealing with bindweed.

Anna before making her new beds, see the weekly for her progress. Weeds should not be difficult since it’s mown grass with tidied edges, then cardboard & 10cm compost

No dig on pasture. After two months under polythene, some weeds still have life in their roots such as dandelion, buttercup, grasses and bindweed. The cover stays on for now

Propagation

I hope that you are enjoying success with raising plants. Every year one learns a little bit more, and I’m always trialling new things. We’ve come through the most difficult time: from now on, new seedlings should grow much stronger and faster.

Be ready with some fleece, if you’re raising warmth loving plants in a greenhouse and there is a cold night forecast. This applies to tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergine, squash, melon, basil and sweetcorn. Lay it from evening until morning only.

Sungold tomatoes one month since sown, always the fastest variety

I sowed asparagus Ariane F1 seeds in my module tray kept on the hotbed, then we moved seedlings into 7 cm pots

Trialling two green waste and quite fresh composts, for quality and nutrition. Multisown radish give rapid answers!

Spring delicacies

We’re enjoying some lovely spring cabbage, from a sowing in late August and transplanting late September, after summer beans. Make notes in your or my diary for these kinds of vegetables which are such a bonus in the spring.

The broccoli on the other hand was sown last June. And now we have just planted some asparagus crowns, in shallow holes rather than trench-and-ridge.

Broadleaf sorrel in the small garden, has given many harvests already and small leaves are tasty in a salad mix

The Claret F1 purple sprouting broccoli has cropped brilliantly for three weeks so far, and this is the last very large harvest, probably it will give smaller and still nice shoots for 2 to 3 more weeks, depending on temperature

Asparagus roots of one year crown, planted no dig and this is Mondeo F1 from Suttons, before I covered the roots about 7cm deep

Claret broccoli with a fine first head, was sown June and transplanted late July

Sweet heads of spring cabbage sautéed in a little oil and butter, with pansies from the garden

After cutting the first head, plants grow smaller but still very nice side shoots, and the best bit is their stems which are sweet, also called 'poor man's asparagus' — After cutting the first head, plants grow smaller but still very nice side shoots, and the best bit is their stems which are sweet, also called ‘poor man’s asparagus’

Stored vegetables

When you grow your own lovely healthy vegetables, they store far better than anything you buy. Just look at the quality of these carrots which we harvested in December and the potatoes harvested last July. They taste so good, and are super welcome now.

Oxhella carrots harvested 4 months earlier, not washed and kept in a 2 ply sack in my shed, cool & damp

Charlotte potatoes harvested 9 months earlier, also kept in paper sack in the same shed. We rubbed new shoots off in January

Frost damage

Just a heads up on what can happen. My broad beans are quite tall and the frost of -5 C 23 Fahrenheit has slightly damaged some of the stems so they’re not standing up well. The other damage is where frozen fleece touches any leaves, and this can happen with potatoes as well, if there is a late frost. Support the fleece if you can. Even then, they may be singed if it’s -3C or lower. It’s why I plant most potatoes in April rather than March.

Broad beans mostly survived but their stems were softened by a -5C frost. These have winter salads between

The first shoots of this Sharpes Express were killed by frost and new growth is now coming through.

Frost damage on cauliflower leaves where they touched the fleece cover. Cauls’s are prone to this because of flat leaves, compared say to broccoli

Pest damage

Adam was removing bindweed from the bed of onion transplants and wondered why there were so few plants! Then he found wireworms, clustered around many of the roots. Quite small ones, and I’m with puzzled that they seem to be only in this one bed.

I hope that you do not encounter pyralid damage from compost. See my video for details. Classic symptoms are curling inwards of new topmost leaves, on beans, potatoes, tomatoes and peas above all.