the middle of April
Sow and sow on
Little and often. Hedge your bets. My biggest mistake of this year has been to over-commit too early. I had packets with not many seeds in (not mine, I hasten to add) and I scattered some on a seed tray, looked at the few left in the bottom and, in the spirit of minimalism and de-cluttering, thought I might as well put them all in. We all have tins and tubs of old, half-full (half-empty?) seed envelopes filling up our space don’t we? That’s what I tell myself anyway. So I chucked them all on and put the envelopes in the bin.
What a mistake. You know that test for whether you should keep something you own? Asking yourself ‘would I buy this again?’. I was then left with a choice of whether I was actually going to re-order a packet of Selinum wallichianum seed for a second time in a month.
But I have learned my lesson. Little and often. A pinch here and a pinch there. The added bonus here is that this is the backbone of successional sowing. If you want one week in late June where everything flowers and nothing the rest of the year, then absolutely sow everything you have in the middle of April. Lots of cut flowers have a seed to flower time of between 60 and 70 days in optimal conditions, so it figures that if you sow everything together, it’ll all flower together. Your garden will look astonishing for a while, and then nothing until the first flush of flowers has set seed, dispersed, and then the second generation has flowered again. Do a bit of all your hardy annuals now, and then do it all again in two weeks, and then again in a month. Throw in a few warmth-loving flowers in at the beginning of May, and you’ll be sorted.
Watch the weather
Did you have snow? We didn’t but the BBC weather app has been telling me that there is a night coming where it will fall to -2. Unless you are in Cornwall or in another climate entirely, accept that spring has not quite sprung reliably, and keep any tender plants and vulnerable seedlings in a place of safety.
Water
Just a side note in the weather. Have you noticed how dry it has been? No April showers here… I have some tulips in pots in the courtyard and they were showing flowers but looking a bit lacklustre. I realised that anything in a pot will be absolutely dry as a bone. Water well, but not too often. I have also been moving lots of grasses and perennials around in the Sparkes beds and they will benefit from frequent watering too.
Weed
There is no way round this. I spent yesterday with trugs and buckets, a fork and an old bread knife, and I probably will again today. Once I have had my second vaccine anyway. If you don’t get on top of them now, you probably never will. Even ten minutes with a hoe can make all the difference.
Harvest tulips
I have two sets of tulips. Those under glass and those in pots. The first set roared into life with the early April heat and have been sitting on my kitchen table for at least ten days. My cottage is what is politely known as ‘cool’ because of the thickness of the stone walls. I have to wear two jumpers but the tulips love it. Keep them out of direct sunlight and somewhere cool and they will last for ages. The others look like they are going to be weeks away yet but, as above, they may just need a water.
Other bits:
Still not too late for sweet peas. As above, little and often. Also, peas for peatops and for eating.
If you have daffodils and narcissi in the ground, snap the heads off to stop all the energy going into seed production. If you got them in pots put them somewhere where they will catch the sun and wait until the foliage has died back and then you can put them in the ground this autumn.
Ditto the fritillaria that you bought on a whim from Waitrose because the field ones weren’t out yet.
