EP322 - What To Sow In April Vegetables, Herbs & Flowers

March can feel like four seasons in a week, and that’s exactly why an April seed sowing guide is so useful. We sit down with the reality of spring weather swings and turn them into a practical plan: what to sow now under cover, what to hold back until soils warm, and how to stay flexible so you don’t waste seed or stall your garden momentum.

We run through a packed “what to sow in April” list for the vegetable garden, starting with reliable salads like lettuce, spring onions, spinach, radish and rocket, then moving into brassicas, peas and beans, and the root crops that start to make sense as beds dry out. We also share timing notes for onions and leeks, the value of multi-sowing, and why fresh parsnip seed matters more than people realise. For warm-season crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes and squash, we talk about the late-but-still-possible window and the importance of steady warmth.

Seedlings don’t love extremes, and we unpack a common spring problem: huge temperature variance in a greenhouse or polytunnel that can leave young plants looking sorry for themselves. You’ll also hear a simple way to keep harvests coming with microgreens, even when outside is still stop-start.

On the ornamental side, April is where annual flowers really kick off, with options like cosmos, sunflowers, nasturtiums, cornflowers and nigella, plus a great case for growing dahlias from seed and planting bulbs and tubers for summer colour. 

Grow Your Own Herbs Workshop: 

We finish with a look at upcoming workshops, including a herb-focused day with Laura Darcy of Yarrow lane Herbs that connects growing with real-world uses like teas and home remedies.

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Transcript

Why Monthly Seed Lists Work

SPEAKER_00 0:12

How's it going everybody and welcome to episode 322 of Master My Garden Podcast? Now this week's episode being the last Friday of March, I am looking at the subject of what to sew in the month of April. And this episode proves every month to be very, very popular. And even though I've covered it over the last number of years, I guess what what people like about it is that at the start of every month it gives you that kind of nudge or that reminder of what is possible over the month ahead and you know keeps keeps you thinking about what we can sew in the month. And not everything on the on the list, of course, will be relevant for you, but it also the other thing that people seem to like is the seasonality of it. So April this year could be could be very, very different to the April of the year before. The list fundamentally doesn't change, but the context of the list and I suppose the information around the list may tweak and move and slide depending on the weather conditions at the moment. And as as uh March sort of f finishes out, it's you know, it's a month that has done what March does, give you a little bit of everything. And you know, March of many weathers I said that at the start of March, you know, that that's what we can come to expect, but it has never been more evident than it has this week. So last Saturday, the 21st of March, I had the second of the Grow Your Own Food Workshops here, and the difference between the first one, which was the 21st of February, was unbelievable. So it was a beautiful morning. It started off. I was up and out up and about early, but it was a beautiful morning, but very frosty. And by the time people arrived for a 10am start, it was warm, and by 12 o'clock it was you know ex it was very warm, like sunburn type weather. And then that evening it got cold and then it was wet on Sunday, and over the course of the week it had we've had everything from sunshine to warm days to snow, uh flakes of snow, now none of it stuck, to frost, to torrential rain, to high winds, all in the space of seven days. So March has certainly lived up to the name of March of Many Wetters, and it's in that context that you know you we we look at these seed lists on a monthly basis. And while, as I say, the list, you know, what's on the list fundamentally doesn't change the the context or what we need to be looking out for or what we need to be moving or sliding, depending on what's happening, is you know, changes, and I think that's why people find these really, really popular. So this episode we're going to cover all of our edible crops and we're also going to look at flowers. So there's a lot of flowers that we can sow this month, and you know, what we are having now, we're going to have a big, a big increase, particularly this month in you know, in daylight hours. Definitely temperatures will come up. We're still proceeding with caution because you can, of course, get you know little bits of rain and wind and and various things like that. But on a whole, we are looking at you know the weather being a lot more settled and the days getting longer, and the ability to sow successfully from now on increases, uh, you know, even outside. So we're we're starting to move through the seasons, even despite the fact that I've just said we've had a week of every sort of weather. So you proceed with caution, but the the possibilities are a lot more in the month ahead. So to look at what we can sow, and you know, I kind of group them together, categorize them together, and you also keep an eye on what it is that you know works in your own area to a certain extent. But starting off, we look at all the salads, and you know, most of the salads are on the agenda now, they can all be sewn as they as they could for the last couple of months, and the ability to do a little bit of outside sewing may come over the next couple of weeks. Certainly not, you know, and not this week around here because it's still very, very cold and wet. But that's not to say in another week or two the temperatures could come up and stay up, and then you know you're good to start sowing outside. So, firstly, we'll look at the salads. Uh so lettuce, pretty much all of the lettuce type seeds can be sowed now. Uh, spring onions, regular on the list, it's going to be on the list every month. It you sowed regularly, you harvest it regularly, you use it regularly, and it doesn't, you know, it doesn't come off the list basically until the very, very end of the year. Spinach is another one, so annual spinach again is a very good one, but it is one that will repeat sow or successional sew, as we call it, and that will be a regular on the list. Uh, radish is another one, again, a very fast maturing, quick crop. Direct sewing is very much possible here, especially inside at this stage, but definitely later in the month, middle of the month, towards the end of the month, direct sew outside for very fast harvests. Uh, rocket is another one. I don't regularly sew this because I at all sew this actually, um, because I have perennial rocket which basically stays coming back all the time. And but so I have rocket available pretty much all the year round. But if you are sowing annual rocket, you will need to repeat sow and continually sow it because it does grow quickly and it also runs the seed quite quickly, so you do need to be conscious of that. Then we're on to you know some of the the brassica family, and of course we have cabbage, caliberries, um broccolies, cauliflowers, all of those, and they're all options to be sowed this month. You're still look, you know, for the most part, you're looking at sort of earlier, sort of early summer varieties as opposed to you know the autumn crops, so you switch as this as the year goes on. But at the moment we're dealing with the majority of these, we're dealing with you know spring summer crops, and that's what they're looking for here. Uh so all of the all of Nebraska's essentially. Then things like peas and beans can be sowed this month. Uh broad bean, kind of your last your last shot at that, but broad bean, um garden peas, monch too, any of those can be can be sowed this month. French beans, potentially you could sow depending on your area. I don't actually sow until I will sow at the end of the month, but it will need to be depending on the weather conditions. So if if things are you know 10, 12, 14 degrees for a period of 10 days or so, then I will I will sew. But at the minute I'm I'm not sewing those, so they're kind of a they're kind of one that I will do, but it could be later in the in the in the month. Uh root crops then, the usually. So your turnip, your Milan purple top, again, it's going to be one that you'll sew relatively uh regularly. So strong tasting, you can get those, and you can get the snowball one. Um Swedes, which is you know the bigger one, it's the one that is called turnip here in Ireland, but no, it is a Swede, and that can be sewed. Now you're generally going to sew those if you got later in the month and the weather conditions were good, you could direct sew outside and just maybe tinly sew them so that they allow they're allowed and get an opportunity to develop. But at this stage I'll be sewing them in module trays inside. Uh beetroot is another one again towards the end of the month, we will direct sew or be able to direct sew. At the moment, I would still be either sewing in a greenhouse or into you know, direct sewing in the in the ground in the greenhouse or into a module tray again undercover. Uh celeriac, kind of your last chance to get that one in this month. I don't sow seed of celeriac. It's a brilliant, brilliant winter vegetable, but it is you know, it's a tough enough one to grow from seeds. So just have a look at you know, it's a good garden centre or nursery that has celariac available in in plug plants, and one tray of plug plants will give you a lovely crop of celeriac in the in the deep winter time. Brilliant for soups and so on. So it's a nice one to grow, but I would tend to not grow it from seed, it's tricky enough. Uh on the moving on then through the sort of families of vegetables, you know, onions, um kind of last sowing of onions in terms of your your proper big uh storing onions, red and white can be grown. Leeks you'll start to sow this month again, they can be multi-sown, soak into the onions. Multisown means you're putting several seeds into the into the same cell, and they can be planted out and mature and you know fully fully form while close together with with their neighbouring neighbouring plants, no issue whatsoever. A lot of the herbs can be grown, so we're looking at coriander, chevel, dill, uh rosemary sage, any of those can be grown from seed. Generally speaking, for the likes of rosemary sage time, you know, if you have one plant or two plants of those, you will have enough for your family. So generally speaking, I'd recommend just buying a plant of those or a couple of plants rather than buying a packet of seed. A packet of seed, for example, of rosemary could have 50 or 100 seeds in it. But you don't need you only need one or two plants, so maybe just buy a plant or two of those, but you can sow those those seeds. Uh, one that comes onto the list for the first time and is a hugely it's a beautiful, an absolutely beautiful um herb to have very, very synonymous with summertime and tomatoes is basil. So basil can be grown this month. It loves heat, so again, you're just going to be watching for that because it does really, really want warm temperatures to both germinate and to grow. So, yeah, brilliant one though for anyone that grows their own tomatoes to have that basil to to pair with your tomatoes is you know that that taste is sensational. Uh, carrots and parsnips should be an opportunity when the ground is dry enough, when the temperatures are warm enough to get sewing outside. Carrots, I have a sewing done in the tunnel already, so of the the smaller Amsterdam forcing type ones, and yeah, outside then my sewing will switch to a sort of an autumn stroke winter variety. Ones to watch out for good varieties, Autumn King, nonce is another one, and yeah, they're they're useful, um, very good varieties for autumn time and into into the winter. Parsnip as well, you know, you have a couple of varieties there, but make sure you're using fresh seed, that's the big thing with parsnips. If you have seed that you have from last year, there's a very, very good chance that it won't be viable. So go out and get yourself fresh seed is is kind of the call when it comes to parsnips. Some of the warm, warm crops you can still grow, but you are getting to the kind of last opportunities, you know, things like cucumber, tomato. Um you know, from now on it's getting a bit late, but you're okay for this month, month of April, especially given that it has been so mixed up along through February and March. Um, but yeah, tomatoes, cucumber, kind of last shot, corgettes, they're okay, you can sew them away. Squash this month is kind of the first chance, middle of the month onwards, to sew your squash. And yeah, they'll they'll do really well, but they want warmed. And yeah, I have a couple of those ready to go as well. And that's kind of yeah, that's more or less the the edibles list. It's it's quite a big list. Uh one that I've started growing recently, um microgreens, they can be sown pretty much all year round, but they're they're very proven very successful uh from sowing to harvest of a lovely radish mix seven days, and that's you know, that's a really fast turnaround. So that's a good one to add into your into your sewing regime on a on a weekly or monthly basis. And and as I say, that kind of covers off most of the of the edible sewing. You can also plant, you know, potatoes still, onion sets still, shallots still, uh spring planting garlic is still okay. So you have loads that you can be doing, and you know, the weather has been a bit mixed, so things have been a little bit stop start, but I think now, you know, I didn't see too many pictures of people planting potatoes on St. Patrick's Day this year. I know some people did, but it definitely has been, you know, a little bit up and down. And the the big the big thing that I've noticed even within the the propagation bed in the polytunnel is the variance in temperature. And at its max, there was in the propagation bed within my tunnel, I had a max temperature of 33 and a nighttime temperature of sort of down to 0.5 or 1 degree, so very huge, you know, 32 or 3 degree variance from max to min. And you know, that's the type of thing that seedlings don't like. So you have to keep an eye out for you have to keep an eye out for that. And if you are looking at seedlings that are feeling a little bit sorry for themselves or not driving on the way you typically would like, that's typically the reason for it. It's that huge variance. They like consistent, you know, consistent temperatures, and they're just not getting that at the moment, um, unless you have a very, very controlled environment. But nonetheless, it doesn't really matter because when things do settle, they'll grow on and in another couple of weeks will be up and running, and yeah, you you kind of forget about what has gone before. Uh so that's kind of your edible list. And then to look at the the ornamental list, and this is you know, there's huge opportunities here, and mostly the sowing of ornamentals and annuals really only gets going now. You'll have done some, and we would have mentioned some you know back earlier in the months, but you are talking about using heat all the time, whereas from now on, potentially you'll be able to sow some of these annual and perennial seeds without the use of heat. You you would still you would still need to be on a windowsill in a conservatory or in your greenhouse, but you're not adding necessarily any heat to it. Give or take. That should be that should be a kind of a you know a good rule from now on. You will also, as the month develops and as the month pushes on towards the end, you will be able to get some annual flowers direct sewn into the ground outside, you know, think thinking of things like cornflowers and Nigelia and uh you know those type things, they'll be able to be direct sewn outside at that stage of the year. So to look at the list, uh we are looking at you know quite a big list, quite a lot of opportunities to sew again. And we're looking at annuals, things like petunias, marigolds, uh, anturhinums, canendulas, cosmos, a brilliant month to sew your cosmos. Such a variety of cosmos, and it's you know, it's a little bit underrated. I know a lot of people sow it, but it is a little bit underrated still. I find it uh just just it's a really successful plant, really easy to grow, pushes out such an amount of flowers, huge amount of flowers, and I think you know just gives you so much back for for not too much effort, again, which is kind of what I like. Uh, sunflowers, obviously, brilliant one to grow. Kids, brilliant one for the pollinators as well. But um, sunflowers can be grown this month, and the speed at which they grow is going to be huge as well. Nasturtium is another one that can be grown this month. You'll see them self-seeding probably somewhere in your garden this month. Um, mentioned cornflower, Nigelia, which is love and the mist, that one can be sown in trays at the moment, in module trays, in seed trays, and even as I say, later in the month you'll be able to direct sow some of those into the ground. Um pretty much all annuals at this stage can be sown, you know. So you you'll your opportunity to grow stuff is increasing because things are generally a little bit warmer at this stage. It's also now a great time to sow, for example, things like dahlias. So to grow dahlias from seed, you can obviously buy them, and we will talk about it in a minute, you know, from you know tubers, but from seed is really, really simple as well. You get a nice, nice quality seed, and you can sow and basically produce a big plant that you can plant out in sort of June time, and you will be getting you will be getting flowers off them in September and October. And the amount of flower, and then you have the you know the you have the the tuber there established and you can dig or cover them over and protect them. But from a very simple packet of seeds, you can grow so many dahlias in in a year, uh all within that one year. So that's a brilliant opportunity. Other perennials can be grown as well, the likes of Achilles, Rebecca, and so on. So there's a huge amount of perennials that can also be sown now. Some of the perennials at this stage of the year will give you lots of you know sort of leaf growth at this stage, and you may not get much flower. That's why you know we recommend sowing those in the in the back end of the previous year, at which point they'll germinate, produce the leaf growth at that stage, and then they will flower in the in the in this year. So there's that. Then, of course, as I mentioned, you know, you can go to your your garden centre or your nursery or your online provider, and you can get things like begonia tubers, begonia bulbs, or crowns, corms, whatever the case may be with the various with the various different flowers. But things like uh begonias, your non-stop begonias, brilliant for hanging baskets, uh lilies, you know, such a I suppose synonymous flower with with summertime, freaches, uh crocosmias, noreenes, again, a lot of the perennials, uh dicentras, even the likes of peonies. Don't particularly love getting peonies from bear root, but you can you can buy them, but I find that you're better off to buy a peony plant, a proper peony plant, a little bit more expensive, but just you get flour quicker, easier to establish. Gladioli, probably seen as a little bit old fashioned, but one that you can sew from you can sow from bulbs now and have flour this year. So there's huge there's huge, I suppose, opportunities to to grow everything once we start getting into the month of April. And yeah, definitely the list of what we can sow is big in this month. Uh the biggest month in terms of what we can sow is probably next month, in the month of May. But nonetheless, there's a huge amount that we can be sowing, that we can be planting, that we can be propagating at this stage of the year. And the opportunities for harvests and for flowers over the over the coming months as a result of sowing in April is is huge. So yeah, that's that's kind of the list. It's uh it's a big list, as I say. Uh next month again will be quite a will be quite a big list, and then you know, from there on it starts to tail down. But again, these these monthly monthly episodes will provide a little bit of context around the lists. So the lists will, as I say, pretty much stay similar. Certain things will come on and off, but year to year they're the same. But what what this episode gives you as well is a little bit of context around what's happening, you know, weather-wise at that time. So I think that's why people find it useful. So, yeah, a bit busy month ahead, um, lots to be doing, hugely successful. I mentioned the the Grow Your Own Food Workshops, two of them were sold out. Um lovely to be back doing them. Two brilliant workshops, two actually two very different workshops, lovely people on boats, lovely atmosphere on both. Because of weather conditions, they kind of ended up being you know different. And actually, where both groups were um you know on their growing journey was different on both groups, so the information then gets tailored to suit them. The next workshop is on is a totally different one, one I haven't done before, and one I'm really looking forward to. So something that I've got into a little bit myself over the last couple of years is is basically drinking herbal teas, uh particularly things like nettle tea, and yeah, people look at you funny when you say that, but I I found huge benefit, particularly from nettle tea, and the workshop on the 18th of April is in conjunction with Laura Darcy, so Yarolane Herbs. And Laura is a super herbalist, and she does you know, she grows a lot of herbs, she does a lot of foraging, and then from that she makes tinctures, bams, uh teas, and she is able to tell you the benefits of those, you know, from a health perspective and so on. So, what we're doing is it's a kind of a combined workshop. So I'm looking at After the growing part of it, we're picking 10 uh herbs that you know to focus on, but it won't be solely based on that. We will be talking about a wide range of herbs, medicinal herbs, well, and herbs that can be used for culinary and medicinal. And then Laura, I'll be doing the growing part, showing you how to grow, showing you how to set up your herb garden, showing you what to work watch out for when you have your herb garden set up, and then Laura will take the the usage part. So she'll show you how to take, for example, a plant like rosemary and how to make it into something that is medicinally useful for your family. So yeah, it's an interesting, an interesting workshop, and I'm looking forward to it because it can kind of combines you know the the growing and the use part. So, you know, the the setup is important. I'll go through all of that, and then Laura will say how we how we can use these, how we can you know process these to have benefit for ourselves and for our families. So yeah, I'm looking forward to that. I'll put the link for it in the show notes. I'll be sending out some information on it over the coming weeks anyway. But that's on the 18th of April. And yeah, a different style of a workshop, but one I'm really, really looking forward to. Again, I'll only be doing one of that one a year, and it's limited to 14 places. So the you know, it's it's uh it's one that yeah, I won't do again until maybe a year's time again. So starting to add a few more of these. If there is workshops, you know, ones that you guys would like to see, please let me know. Something that would be of interest to you, because these will become a regular feature of of what I'm doing. So the podcast will always be going out on a weekly basis, but these workshops are are you know uh an even deeper way of connecting with a particular topic or subject. So hope that helped anyway. That's your seed sewing guide for the month of April. You're going to be busy because it is a long list, and uh yeah, it's uh it's a month where where lots of things can be grown, and it's a lot, you know, even if you haven't much done, there you know April gives you the opportunity to catch up on so much because you will have kind of rapid growth, we'll be getting something from seed to planting out a lot quicker than we would have over the previous months, and we are just keeping an eye and having a small bit of caution around planting out and keeping an eye on young young seedlings as they go out. But that's been the seed sowing guide for the month of April, and that's been this week's episode. Thanks for listening, and I'll tell the next time. Happy garden!