Kitchen Garden Diary, April

April 8

The ‘Aquadulce Claudia’ beans I planted in autumn are already knee high, so I spent a happy half hour putting in posts and tying string around them to support them as they get taller. I should be picking them by the end of next month. Despite having had a complete aversion to broad beans as a child (mainly due to the fact that my well-meaning mother made us eat tough-skinned beans smothered in cloying white sauce), I adore them now, having discovered that you must eat them when they are young and tender – or if not double pod them to get rid of the bitter, rubbery skins. Broad beans contain high levels of levodopa which converts into the neurotransmitter dopamine in the body, so in theory they can help to alleviate mild depression or mood swings – they have even been used as a non-clinical treatment for Parkinsons. I guess you’d have to consume huge quantities for any meaningful impact, and actually just the taste of them makes me feel happy, so that’s reason enough to grow lots of them each year. I like having a succession of broad beans in spring and summer, so in addition to the autumn-sown crop, I have just planted another lot straight into the ground – this time ‘Giant Exhibition Longpod’ – and these should be ready to pick in July.

April 15

Easter weekend was spent at home, so I have had plenty of time to get ahead in the garden. Rather belatedly I planted the last of my potatoes, which had been chitting for too long on a windowsill in the shed. (The bulk of them had been planted in March). Chitting potatoes isn’t strictly necessary, but once they’ve started sprouting at least you know they will quickly get going once in the soil. With all my vegetables I like experimenting with new varieties, but I also find myself coming back to a handful of stalwarts year after year, simply because they are reliable and taste so good, and for the potatoes this failsafe variety is ‘Nicola’. It’s a second early and produces lovely, smooth waxy new potatoes that are equally good if you leave them in the soil over the summer to get bigger – they make excellent baked potatoes and will store well into the autumn.

April 16

Today was one of those amazing days where weather and children allowed me to spend a good few hours out in the garden, interrupted only by my new collie pup Willow, who barks hysterically at the wheelbarrow if not otherwise engaged. I stayed outside until it was almost dark, turning and moving my compost heaps to free up one of the bins, barrowing some of the finished compost down to the veg patch to pile onto the bed earmarked for pumpkins and squash. I wrote a book on compost when I had an allotment in my twenties, interviewing all the old-timers to get their tips, so in theory I should have the prefect compost recipe. But all that layering of green and brown stuff and regular turning to get air into the heap takes time, and the reality is that my compost heaps, like most people’s, are sorely neglected, and therefore rather slow. If you want to speed up the process, one of the easiest ways to give your compost heap a boost is to grow comfrey and scatter leaves and stems through your heap as an activator. Comfrey is high in nitrogen, which not only kick-starts the decomposition process but also means that the resulting compost is highly nutritious. Nettles are a good alternative, and that’s what I used today to add to my rather stagnant heap, as there was a patch right at the end of the garden that I needed to get rid of.

April 29

It was beautifully warm today, and that feeling of gardening in a T-shirt, having been in winter clothes for so long, was unbelievably good. It felt warm enough to start sowing outside, so I dug out Anna Pavord’s book, The New Kitchen Garden, as I wanted some ideas for laying out my veg plot in a more decorative way. Everyone has a bible when they are just starting to grow vegetables, and Anna’s book was mine. I still have the dog-eared paperback copy that I had in my allotment shed to refer to every time I planted something. As well as all the practical information you might need for sowing and growing, the book also has a series of plans with different ideas for laying a plot out, right down to the rows and configurations of vegetables and companion plants so that the plot will be as attractive as it is productive. I like the idea of growing veg in diagonal lines across each bed, and alternating crops like beetroot and lettuce to create green and ruby stripes, so that’s what I’m planning this year. I started by sowing chard, perpetual spinach and lettuce. ‘Golden Chard’ from Real Seeds is my default variety – it seems to be more tender and palatable than others – and although it’s not as decorative as the ‘Rainbow’ varieties, taste comes first in my kitchen garden. I sowed two rows of this and two of perpetual spinach (easier than true spinach as it is much less likely to run to seed and will go on and on into autumn), as well as a row each of ‘Buttercrunch’ and ‘Red Salad Bowl’ lettuces. I love this time of year. Spring is so full of purpose and promise, and the whole ritual of sowing seeds and watching the green shoots emerge and grow never fails to lift my spirits.

April Checklist

Plant second early and maincrop potatoes. Sow seed outdoors for hardy vegetables such as beetroot, chard, and salad crops. Sow seed indoors for tender crops such as courgettes, squash and tomatoes. Plant shallots, onion setts and garlic. Plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers. Provide supports for pea or bean plants as they get bigger. Keep on top of weeding as the soil warms up.