Growing your own vegetables is good for you and the planet.
Not only is it good exercise, helping you with strength, flexibility and balance, but you can also produce lots of fresh and healthy food whilst doing it.
If you garden organically, you can be confident that your vegetables are not contaminated by chemicals and you'll improve the health of your plot.
There’s more to organic gardening than avoiding the use of pesticides, but help is at hand.
The Garden Organic website has great practical advice for both novice gardeners and experts.
Garden Organic’s 5 pillars of organic gardening
- Build and maintain soil health
- Encourage biodiversity
- Use resources responsibly
- Avoid using harmful chemicals
- Maintain a healthy growing area.
April jobs on the vegetable plot
You can do the following to help your vegetable plot:
- spread home-produced compost on the plot to improve the health and fertility of the soil - good soil, full of organic matter, is the key to producing healthy and delicious vegetables
- consider a no-dig system - undisturbed soil tends to be healthier as essential micro-organisms benefit. Once the no-dig system is set up, it can be easier on the back. Garden Organic offers lots of practical advice on no-dig gardening
- wash your pots and seed trays - good hygiene discourages pests
- at the end of the month, sow tender vegetables in pots such as:
- courgettes
- squashes
- aubergines
- runner beans.
- keep these potted vegetables on a windowsill or in a greenhouse until there is no danger of frost - this will be May at the earliest. Grow them to a good size so that when they go in your plot, they are less vulnerable to slugs and snails.
April flowers
These flowers are all hardy, beautiful and a great source of food for insects:
- Cowslips
- Pulmonaria
- Ornamental crab apple trees for blossom.
We hope you will enjoy fresh produce from summer through to autumn and gain satisfaction from doing your bit for the planet.
Sources: Gardening for a Wilder Kent / Garden Organic growing advice
