What to Plant in April?

If you have an allotment, chances are you can’t wait to get planting. Hopefully by now you would have all your winter seedlings ready for planting out, like broad beans, which should actually be flowering now.

I love beans in any shape, colour or form, they have a unique taste to each one of them and they offer such a variety to your cooking. My favourite is the Dwarf French bean, it seems the more you pick the more they flower. Having tried and tested various ways of storing them, I have found that the easiest is to freeze straight from picking and seal them in a freezer bag to prevent ice burn.

April is the best season to plant a variety of amazing vegetables. These are some of my favourites:

Beans – Start planting both bush and pole beans now that the soil and air are warming up. Try a continual 7-10 days sowing of different varieties. This will give you continual bean crops and not one large harvest with wasted crop.
Beets – Sow beets now for a fast, early summer treat.
Cabbage - Cabbage is one of the easier plants to grow in the garden. Be sure to fertilize and water when cabbage head begins to form.
Carrots – Planting carrots by April will give an early summer crop.
Cucumbers- Fast growing vine or bush cucumber plants can produce an abundance of cucumber fruits. Be careful to pick a variety for the space you have in your garden. Vine cucumbers can be the best tasting but need far more space than bush varieties.
Lettuce  – Start a crop of salad mix greens that gets bright sun but not all day. Great for late summer and early fall crops.
Peppers – Fresh, crisp peppers are a garden favorite. Peppers take up little space and can produce high yields when planted close together. Plant as many different varieties as possible. They come small, big, hot, mild, and an array of different colors.
Summer Squash – Summer squash sowing in June will lead to fresh squash and zucchini in July and August.
Tomatoes – The most popular garden vegetable. Growing tomatoes is not only fun but treats you to some of the best tasting fruits in the world. Tomatoes come in many colors, shapes, taste and sizes. Grow a few varieties every year to find your favourites!

Collated information from various websites, you can also get yourself sorted and up and running by buying some of these products:
Fertilisers & Plant Food
Greenhouses & Plant Germination Equipment
Seeds