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When to plant vegetables
(Issue 7 - 1st April 2010)

Your soil is ready I hope after winter or recent digging - as planting can commence soon for many crops.

April is the busiest month of the year when it come to sowing and planting your vegetables.

If you haven't decided what to grow yet then take heart, there is still time for research as this spring is later than most recently. What-ever stage you are at make a list of all the seeds you need to plant/ sow;

Have a look at my suggestions of the best vegetables to grow together with choices of early vegetables that provide your first harvests.

The decision on when to plant vegetables is governed by local conditions, the needs of the crops and varieties you have chosen and your plan. Most importantly ensure you follow recommended planting times for each vegetable. You should confirm these on the back of the seed packet as different varieties and locations have different needs/ advice.

You have two options; sow/ plant direct into the final vegetable plot or sow in pots or seed trays under cover on a window cill, or green house if you are lucky enough, and then transplant seedlings into the vegetable patch when conditions are right and plants hardened off. I do a bit of both depending on the vegetable crop.

This latter technique allows you to start earlier in warmer protected conditions and minimises damage by mice/ birds/ frosts. However, with seed potatoes, onion, shallot and garlic sets it is best to plant direct into the prepared seedbed.

See my guidance on how to grow vegetables for techniques that fit the easy vegetable gardening system.

• I hope you have managed your March plantings, but it is not too late, and remember to protect early crops from spring frosts


• To avoid gluts it is a good idea to plan successional sowing of certain vegetables (carrots, beetroot, leeks, dwarf beans, broadbeans, lettuce and other salads, brassicas) to provide a good supply through most of the year


• Remember to prepare only the seedbed you need ready for immediate planting leave other soil dug but rough for later plantings - this avoids encouraging weeds and over-worked soil


• Once seeds are sown in the soil of your plot cover with a thin layer of fine soil and then some slightly coarser soil to aid germination but prevent soil capping - tamp down gently with the back of the rake

I have been busy writing the soil e-book this month and tidying the site, but have not added more pages these last few weeks.

I am hoping the soil e-book will be completed for May, but it is amazing how long such projects take to write and research - and I want it to be worth the wait. Look out for my next ezines.

Spring has stayed and we have enjoyed 10-15C this last few weeks, sunshine and little rain until a few days ago - the feared return to winter and more snow has not happened in Southern England, although temperatures here have dropped to 5-10C by day and we had a frost last night, however Scotland and Northern Ireland have just had 15-50cm snow.

With dry soils I was able to catch up on removing the winter weeds and marvel at the lovely crumbly soil the easy vegetable gardening techniques have helped me build. The great thing is that most plots on my allotment will not need any digging.

To sow the carrots and broadbeans last week I just used a couple of passes of a rake to level the ground, drew seed rows, sowed the seeds, covered and the job was easily done in 10 minutes.

The old stems on the Aspargus and cane fruit has been removed. I even carefully moved the Gooseberry bush to make space for the Tayberry that grows 3m either way.

The compost heap has been cleared and fresh compost is ready for use as needed, however, I still need to move the home heap to the allotment - hard work for a cold Easter!

The current main vegetable plot looks mostly very tidy except a new area I need to clean weeds from and plan what to do with. The plots await sowing/ planting over the next 2 months.

Recent rain and the threat of cold weather means I've delayed my planting of my onion and shallot sets until after Easter. Cold wet soils are good for rotting diseases - not growth of sets.

Next week I need to dig the four potato plots, the first ready for planting a first early variety Swift.

Thank you.

Best wishes for a happy Easter and happy vegetable gardening

Colin (easy-vegetable-gardening.com)