April

Edible flowers, what an hour's gardening is worth... & top tips for growing flowers in April.

April must be the truest Spring month, no? Blinking from the Winter after party, there is a still cool blue hue to the daylight, with often a cooler breeze and showers but the sun is much higher in the sky. Grass and new leaves are more verdant as they emerge. There is a moment on the road to our village, when the tree foliage comes out over a few days. The tapestry of greens is utterly beautiful. It’s very Hockney, but blink and it is gone. The leaf buds pop and the chlorophyll settles to a mid green for the next few months. Lonesome skeletal shapes of trees become huge shade umbrellas of refuge, with blossoms in the air and finally a whisper of warmth on your skin.

One of my favourite things about the UK is the seasons, all of them anchoring us in a time and place. Most of us can be accused of wistfully wishing our winters away for long summer days but without them, there’d be no Spring or Autumn on the journey round. In the UK we are positioned perfectly to enjoy a temperate climate, for the time being, never too cold or too hot so that the most incredible variety of plants, originating from all over the world can be grown. It is thanks to our global location and weather that we have the historic reputation for our gardens and flower growing.

After a long cold start to the year, this Spring, Easter is giving new life, new plants and a fresh start.  It’s so joyful to see all the bulbs popping from the soil and those bright colours against true mid green. I’m using a lot more of those same flowers on salads and to decorate cakes too, literally bringing the outside onto my plate.  More than decoration, edible flowers can add a texture and a welcome spring freshness to dishes.

I grow edible flowers all over the gardens. Most of them for cutting, so have a double use. Smaller ones tumbling over the edges of beds or in pots. Raised up, out of the main growing areas, they are less likely to be covered in soil, damaged or sprayed with foiler feed. All of which render the flowers far less pretty, or worse, inedible on a plate. 

Spring is one of the best times for edible flowers, and it’s surprising how many there are; forget-me-nots, hyacinths, pansies and violas, violets, sweet rocket and primroses to name just a few. These are most lovely on puddings or crystallised, but also in drinks, creating a delightful and enchanting touch.   Tulips are fantastic petals to eat and a real showstopper if you use the petals as cases for canapés.

Since you never know what a grower has sprayed their flowers with, especially if not British, I recommend only eat those I know are Organic certified, that I have grown or a trusted few others! Definitely one to grow your own. 

Many summer flowering annuals are edible too; these can be sown now undercover or now direct into the soil. Garden beds will be warm enough to germinate and with less disturbance for the plants, resulting in better growth. Great summer edibles are cornflowers, snapdragons, calendula and nasturtiums. The latter have really spicy leaves too. All of these are beautiful in drinks, ice cubes or scattered on salads. 

Blossoms are utterly magical, and I love gathering amelanchier, lilacs and or course elderflower for decoration. There’s are an unmatched delicate fragrance too; more subtle that the stronger soapy winter shrubs and lighter that the summer heady evening scents. Eating flowers grown across the year from the garden is gardening seasonally and inspire all five of the senses.

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APRIL FLOWER GROWING TASKS

My horticultural version of ‘an hours sleep before midnight is worth two after’ is at the forefront of all my plans this April. Except, maybe double that. This month, a few hours on the plots is worth a day or two come mid summer.

It *probably* isn’t the busiest month, but certainly our stamina can have a training practise as the test list lengthens. More seed sowing, pricking out, transplanting and planting out. And repeat. Finally, finally there are arm fulls of flowers to cut too. We’ve come full circle and the flower season has begun.

1. Sow half hardy annuals.

   Since most plants will take 6-8 weeks between germination and planting out, now is a great time to be sowing them. My favourites include rudbeckia, nicotiana and coreopsis. I am sowing a lot of herbs this year too.

   Nettle propagation aside, making my own compost seems to be encouraging strong growth and humification. That is, great stickiness. Where you might see soil around the roots of seedlings, it can indicate connection to the fungi and bacteria already active. I do manage to grow a lot of less welcome plants too but it is a small price to pay. My seed compost recipe is equal parts mature compost (about a year old ideally) with garden loam (usually cut from the edges of the walled garden beds) or molehills if I can get it, with sand or vermiculite.

2. Transplanting.

   Transplant, prick out and pot on seedlings that have grown their first set of true leaves, now ready to leave the seed compost and root into something more fibrous and nutritious.

   Try to do this on a gentle, ideally damp day so that moisture is not wicked away from the fragile young leaves as plants are understandably stressed by moving. This week, I could only do this task on a very warm windy day so as I did, I covered the seedlings with fleece. To shade from the sun and protect from the drying wind. I transplant into damp compost but I never water seedlings straightway. Instead allowing seedlings to anchor into their new soil and reach for water instead. After a few days the seedlings have shown new growth, I water from below. I do the same when planting into beds.

3. Direct sow

   Sow seeds just do not enjoy being moved about and prefer to grow where they germinate. This isn’t ideal for me. I need to keep my sandy soil damp until they do but in April, the usual spring showers are my friend. I’ll be sowing nigella, buplureum, zinnia and nasturtiums this way.

4. Cuttings

   With active growth from dahlias, chrysanthemums, salvias and pelargoniums, I am beginning to take cuttings for extra, or even ‘some’ plants after loosing so many plants over the winter.

5. Make liquid feeds

   I’m making comfrey and balanced feeds now for my summer stock.

6. Compost heaps

   By now, we are cutting grass and weeds are growing rapidly; finally providing us with ingrediants to compost with. With the slow compost cake maturing for dahlia and shrub mulching now, I need a quick turn around for potting on so I’ll be making windrows this months for compost in 6-8 weeks time.

7. Weeding and green manures

   If you do nothing else, get out on dry days with the hoe. Slice those weeds just below the soil level, mid morning, and let them dry in the sun. Then sow green manures to feed and stimulate the soil until you have plants ready to take their place.

For more on all of these tasks this month, upgrade your subscription here for weekly emails and step by step guides to these as I do them direct into your inbox every Tuesday.