Early April In the Kitchen Garden

During early April in the kitchen garden there's loads of work to do; weeding, sowing, digging, pruning and planting. The lettuces and cabbages on the picture here have to be hardened off before they can be planted out in the kitchen garden. So I put them outside during the day and pop them back into the greenhouse at night.

And here's our friend the black bird keeping an eye on things from the water butt that catches all the rainwater off the roof of the greenhouse.

I've sown rocket, a mixture of lettuces and radishes in a cold frame and here they are hardening off during the day. It's still very cold at night, around freezing point or slightly above that. Night frost is normal this time of year and the newly sown plants are still very tender and need some protection during the night.

But during the day, the temperature can rise to around 20 degrees Celsius as it did during the Easter weekend when it was sunny and warm outside. We were very lucky to have such lovely weather at Easter and I was able to do a lot of work in the kitchen garden.

In the Victorian greenhouse I've planted some lettuce as well as some tomatoes and basil. Tomatoes and basil not only go well together in a salad but also in the garden, they are excellent companion plants.

These seedlings (corn, courgette and pumpkins) germinated in the conservatory where it's warmer during the night than in my unheated Victorian greenhouse, but they are moved into the greenhouse now to harden off a bit.

My plum tree, that I planted last year, is in flower for the first time. Pretty, isn't it? I hope there will be plums later this year. The plum I chose is Opal, which is my favorite plum.


The rhubarb that is being forced in my special rhubarb pot, is coming along nicely. I will be harvesting the first rhubarb of the year next week.


The newly dug potato bed has been planted with potatoes 2 weeks ago. The 3 sisters bed is still waiting to be planted but the corn, squash and bean seedlings are coming along nicely, so it won't be long before this bed is planted as well.

The strawberries are in flower rather early this year which is nice as I love strawberries, especially the ones I've grown myself, they are so yummy.

In the garlic bed I've planted a pink windmill flower to add a bit of fun and some colour in this otherwise dull bed. And it makes it easy to see, when you are inside, whether there is a strong wind blowing or not as the flower will spin around like mad in the breeze.

This is the spot where I usually sit outside in the kitchen garden when the sun is shining and it's not too cold. The frilly violets are fun to look at, the wallflowers provide me with a wonderful scent which is hard to miss when you're sitting so close to them, and the thyme is nice to touch and smell. It's always a good idea to have some scented plants close by to where you usually sit in your garden for maximum enjoyment.

Summer of man its sunlight and its flower,
Spring-time of man all April in a face.
John Masefield, 'On Growing Old'