30/4: Gardener’s Log April 2008

April is a big sowing month, all the summer crops are sown in pots ready to be planted out in May and the peppers, aubergines and tomatoes sown earlier are all potted on to give them room to grow on before being planted out. Outdoors a little work on the soil will benefit the next crops to go in. I've added goat manure, seaweed meal, bone meal and woodashes to our soil ready for planting and sowing. The first direct sown summer crops go in with the French Beans and the last of the storage onions are set out.  Its also time to start sowing the earliest of the winter crops leeks, roots and the first winter brassicas.  It is also time to direct sow flowers in and around the potager, I do it to attract bees and other pollinating insects and for a bit of cheery colour, most of the flowers I plant are also edible or useful in some way so they do work for their space.


Image  Florence Fennel growing in the polytunnel April 2008

Images: Lettuces, Valdor  and Dorée de Printemps in the polytunnel

Image: Chicory Catalogna Gigante Chioggia growing in the polytunnel

Image: Chard growing in the potager

Weather
The weather this moth is really worth noting. It has been awful; cold, wet and windy. Outdoor sowings have failed and delayed repeat sowing until the weather is warmer. Undercover the seedling plants (particularly peppers) in the tunnel are growing very slowly. This time last year my pepper plants were a good 20cm high. This year many are hardly past the true leaf stage despite being sown in some cases as early as February in heat.

Note
One thing I have noticed is that the tomato seedlings growing in a high sided polystyrene box have been doing rather better than others not in  polystyrene so thumbs up on that one. I've asked friends to save me their large polystyrene boxes used as packaging so i can grow all my delicate crops in them in future.



Vegetable Patch
The veg patch is pretty much planted up now with garlic, onions, spinach, beetroot, parsnip along side the perennials: Jerusalem artichokes, asparagus, strawberries, red currants. I am leaving the last of the Tuscan kale until the space is needed for the seed crops of Tomato, Peppers and pumpkins.

Polytunnel
The polytunnel has had a complete turn over from the winter to spring crops and spring summer planting is underway. Cleared Tatsoi, Pak Choi, spinach and scarole. Planted out some of the chilli house plants and direct sowed lettuces and Mesclun for baby leaf CCA production.


Potager
The restructuring of the potager is complete and some sowing and planting can start  this month, though the bulk will be next month with the summer crops to set out. I've mostly been measuring out and putting in poles for the summer crops, you can see the aubergine poles in the picture above.

Herbage
The herbage is still providing us with leaves for salad from the original sowing & planting. I've sown lettuces in trays this month that will be set out next month for the summer, as the Herbage is shaded for half of the day. I am hoping it will be a good place to grow salad leaves in summer.


Image preparing the support poles for this years tomatoes.
JOBS

• Clear winter / spring crops from polytunnel
• Spring sow & plant polytunnel
• Harvest oriental brassica seeds
• draw up potager layout and planting plan
• draw up polytunnel layout and planting plan
• draw up veg patch layout and planting plan
• Sow cucurbits
• Sow corn
• Sow beans & peas outdoors
• Sow leeks
• Sow brassicas I
• Prick out / pot on Tomatoes
• Construct Pea frames
• Prick out / pot on Peppers
• Cut and prepare plant stakes 1m, 1.5m and 2m
• Prepare planting mix
• Collect & stack manure
• Turn compost
• Collect & sieve woodash
• Spread woodash on allium beds
• Strimming terraces
• Spread coffee grounds around seedling plants in polytunnel to deter slugs
• Tidy Herbage and add compost and seaweed meal.

Image: Onion, Rouge de Florence seedlings ready to set out April

PROPAGATION RECORD APRIL
Key      Pot Potager, Patch Perennial, allium and seed saving veg Patch,  Poly unheated polytunnel  Nursery Warm light bathroom
S sow  SU Sow Undercover, T transplant/ prick out, P plant / plant outdoors  PU plant / plant undercover   Row = 10ft

Date	Sowed Transplanted Planted WHERE	Variety & quantity
3	SU Polytunnel 24 cell tray	Lettuce Merveille des Quatre Saison - sporadic germination (too hot in the tunnel)
3	SU Polytunnel 40cell tray	Lettuce, Paris Island Cos - sporadic germination (too hot in the tunnel)
3	T Poly	Lettuce, Red Leprechaun (20)
3	T Poly	Lettuce, Paris Island Cos (20)
4	S Patch, 1 row	Parsnip, Guernsey
4	S Patch, 1 row	Beetroot, Bolthardy
4	S Patch, 1 row	Beetroot, Crapaudine
4	P Patch 3.5 rows	Onion sets, Stocarda da Sohina
4	S Patch, 2 rows	Mangetout Peas, Corne de Belier - almost no germination seeds are too old I suspect
4	S Poly, half row x2	Coriander
4	T Nursery	Tomatoes, paste (18+ 12)
4	T Nursery	Tomatoes, Cuostralle (18+ 4)
5	SU Nursery biopots	Pumpkin, Muscade(3), Red Kury(3),  Butternut Ponca(3),  Buttercup Bush(3) No germination Muscade seeds are too old.
5	SU Nursery biopots	Courgettes, Tromba D'Albenga (3), Gold Rush(3), Dwarf Verde di Milano (3)
5	SU Nursery biopots 1 seed	Cucumber, Marketmore (3)
5	SU Nursery 24 cell tray	Endive, Frisee
7	SU Nursery long trays x 5	Basil one of each Large Leaf Green, Citron, Marseillais, Genovese, Aramatico Violetto.
7	SU Nursery cells	Peppers; Padron(5), Doux D'Espagne (10), Cayenne (5), Sweet Cherry (5), Pimiento de Barcelona (5), Black Sea Chillis (5), Lombardo (5)
7	SU Nursery Pots	Peppers; Turkish Sweet Cayenne (2), Chervena Chujski (3), Maroccan Green (3)
7	SU Nursery Half Tray (20)	Okra shoots start to appear April 21
11	PU Poly	Gherkins (5)
11	PU Poly	Chilli, Golden Greek Peperoncini (2)
11	S Poly re-sow in gaps	French Bean, Duel
11	SU Nursery Pots x 39	Sweetcorn, Sweetie (45)   shoots start to appear April 21
11	S Poly 4 half rows	Mesclun, own mix and Cote D'Azur
12	P Potager 4 rows	Onions, Rouge de Florence (own grown seedlings)
12	S Potager 1 double row	French Beans, Butter Maxidor  -No germination????? temperature outdoors
12	S Potager 1.5  rows	Parsley, behind Aubergine poles
12	P Potager 4 half  rows	Agretti
12	S Coldframe	Leeks
16	T Nursery	Tomatoes, Black vars (11 + 15)
16	T Poly	Chilli, Cayenne (2)
18	SU Nursery 6 pots (18)	Cardoon
18	SU Nursery 4 pots (8)	Cucumber, Marketmore
18	SU Nursery 6 pots (12)	Luffa
18	SU Nursery 2 pots (4)	Pumpkin, Butternut Ponca
21	SU Nursery 4 cells (4)	Pepper, Pasilla Bajio
21	SU Nursery 4 cells (4)	Pepper, Chilli de Abrol
21	SU Nursery 4 cells (4)	Pepper, Ancho San Luis
21	SU Nursery 4 cells (4)	Pepper, Ancho 101
21	SU Direct Poly 4 half rows	Lettuce, Verde Ricciolina
21	SU Direct Poly 3 half rows	Lettuce, Brunia
21	P Potager	Lettuce, Laura (20), Regina dei Ghiacci (20)
22	T indoors	Tomatoes, potted on all cherry tomatoes
22	P Herbage	Lettuce, Regina dei Ghiacci (8)
24	S  cells (potting shed)	Lettuce, Sherwood (40), Soulie (20), Great Lakes (20)
24	S Polytunnel	Yard Long Beans to fill gaps made by slug damage
24	S Polytunnel	Pepper, Celiegia Piccante - Direct sown in stations in the polytunnel just to see how well they will grow.
28	PU Polytunnel	Tomatoes: planted out one of each variety of cherry tomato: blackcherry, whaite rabbit, sungold, green zebra, gardeners delight, for an early crop.
30	S Potager 1 double row	French Beans, Fin de Bagnol
30	S Potager 1 double row,	French Beans, Butter Maxidor (re-sowing)