If you have propagated seeds into young plants, continue to “harden off” as described in our March pages, ready to plant out once the threat of frost has gone. These tend to be runner broad and french beans, cabbages, cauliflowers, sprouts, kohlrabi, spring onions and all salad leaves.
Towards the end of the month you can think about planting out outdoor tomatoes, squashes, pumpkins, courgettes, marrows, celeriac and celery. If you have not brought on any seedlings into plants but would like the option (its bit like buying turf rather than seeding a lawn) you can either visit a garden centre like Webbs of Wychbold or go online and have them delivered. Either way, they will have been hardened off and you can plant them out immediately. The benefits of this is that you don’t have to go through the process of “thinning out” and your produce will come more quickly. The downside is cost, plants are much more expensive, though much less time consuming.
If you prefer to sow seeds directly, think about watercress, turnip , chard, sweetcorn, swedes, spinach, salad leaves, rocket, radishes, mangetout peas, snap peas, spring onions, lettuce, endive, leeks, kohlrabi, carrots, cauliflowers, calabrese, cabbage, broccoli, beetroots and all beans.
Fresh herbs are great asset to any chef and to have them readily available is a real treat. Most can be grown either directly into the ground or in pots and are easy to cultivate. Those ready for sowing outdoors include parsley, fennel, dill, coriander, chervil and borage, whilst plants would include thyme, tarragon, sage, rosemary, mint, marjoram, oregano, lovage, chives and bay.
Top Tip
- For those who have little time to spend weeding out, why not try covering an area of soil with weed repellent sheeting, cut a cross in it to plant your herb and once completed cover the whole area with wood chip or pea gravel to decorate.
- Most fruit can be planted out now though be careful to avoid old or wet mornings.
- Blueberries have become very popular and expensive so this is an ideal choice. They love lots of time and are extremely attractive to birds, so a fruit cage for protection is recommended.
Until recently, if you weren’t lucky enough to live within our ‘cask in 50′ delivery area, rarely could you enjoy the fruits of Henry’s team but a growing awards cabinet is helping to spread the Hobsons message beyond the county borders – in a light weight bottle. More and more ‘purveyors of quality’ up and down the country who share a passion for great natural produce are choosing to sell our award winning bottled beers. In fact our bottle sales have increased by an impressive 46% since we launched our new labels back in the Spring of 2009.
