April Gardening
Carrots to Lettuce
Carrots - Sow the main crops and put them on deeply dug ground without
manure.
Cauliflower - to be planted out at every opportunity, warm, showery
weather being most favourable. If cold weather should follow, a large proportion of the
plants will be destroyed unless protected, and there is no cheaper protection than empty
flowerpots, which may be left on all day, as well as all night, in extreme cases when a
killing east wind is blowing. Sow now for late summer and autumn use, prick the plants out
early to save buttoning, and they will make a quick return.
Celery - Sow in a warm corner of the open ground on a bed consisting
largely of rotten manure. It may happen in a good season that this outdoor sowing will
prove the most successful, as it will have no check from first to last, and will be in
just the right state for planting out when the ground is ready for it after Peas and other
early crops. If Celery suffers a serious check at any time, it is apt to make hollow
stems, and then the quality is poor, no matter to what size the sticks may attain. Prick
out the plants from seed-pans on to a bed of rotten manure, resting on a hard bottom, in
frames or in sheltered nooks, and look after them with extra care for a week or two. Good
Celery cannot be grown by the haphazard gardener.
Endive - Sow a small quantity in moderate heat for the first supply, in
drills six inches apart, and when an inch high prick out on to a bed of rich light soil.
Herbs - Chervil, Fennel, Hyssop, and other flavouring and medicinal
Herbs, may be sown now better than at any other time, as they will start at once into full
growth, and need little after-care other than thinning and weeding. Rich soil is not
required, but the position must be dry and
sunny.
Leeks - to be sown again if the former sowing is insufficient or
has failed.
Lettuce - to be sown for succession, the quick-growing, tender-hearted
kinds being the best to sow now. Plant out from frames and seed-pans. A few forward plants
may be tied, but as a rule tying is less desirable than most people suppose. Certainly,
after tying, the hearts soon rot if not quickly eaten; and Lettuces as fine as can be
desired may now be grown without tying, the close-hearting sorts being very much improved
in that respect.
Source: The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots, 16th Edition
1921, Sutton and Sons