MuswellHillbilly

Will you just look at our garden? Apple tree: budding. Tomato seeds: sprouting. Worms: thawing.

(The worms are in a wooden box on legs on the lawn under a tree. They have been asleep all winter. They eat our kitchen waste and give us compost in exchange. More about them later).

April is a cracking time of year to be a gardener. I can’t quite believe that just a couple of months ago, all was buried under snow.

Even in one of the biggest cities of the world, buds and birds are returning. Last week a strawberry plant was bare. Today it has a white flower. Tomorrow something else will open. Our seedlings feel the warmth and push off their seed cases. Soon there will be vegetables. The whole garden is about to break into song, like guests at a surprise party, waiting for the sound of May turning its key in the front door.

As of today (mid April) we have planted:

Already in the ground: Cabbages, garlic and radishes. Peppers and tomatoes. Parsnips, salad onions, chillies under cloches to keep them warm and safe from hungry snails.

In the (overloaded) seed germinator: cress, basil, yellow tumbling tomatoes, aubergines, calabrese broccoli, butternut squash, rocket, loads of salad leaves, coriander, dill, chervil, sorrel, parsley, lovage, sage, chives, red cabbage, round courgettes, colrabi.

In hanging baskets: strawberries and pink lettuce

In buckets on the patio: new potatoes

In seed germinators in the house: 2 kinds of climbing French beans and a dwarf French bean

In a Gro bag hanging from the drain pipe: more tomatoes

Not food but good for companion planting: Geraniums, marigolds and nasturtiums which attract the insects away from our veg. Sunflowers – lots of, indeed we are having a competition to see who can grow the tallest ones. I might get up in the dead of night to feed mine with “plant crack” (illicit Baby Bio).