April is here and if you haven't planted your vegetable seeds yet, its time to get busy. Plants such as peas, broad beans, spinach, lettuce, carrots, arugula, potatoes and onion sets should be in the ground. Its still too early for plants such as basil, peppers, beans, cucumbers or squash but getting your seeds chosen is wise while selection lasts. I like to wait until night time temperatures are a steady 9-10C before placing my warm weather crops outside. Don't forget to harden off your new transplants before planting. They need time to adjust from a warm cozy greenhouse to the lower temperatures of the garden. Take them out for an hour each day to get them used to being outside and lengthen the time as you go. This hardening off can take up to a week but your plants will adjust better.
Thanks to the allotment gardeners that have cultivated their gardens. Try to have your gardens planted by the end of May so you have a successful harvest.
Have you seen the rockery flowers yet? The Hyacinths are stunning!
We also have some gardeners growing Tulips in their space.
The Narcissus are so dainty with multiple flowers on each stem.
The Iberis or candytuft makes me want to run out and buy one for my garden. Its lovely mounding habit makes it perfect for the rock garden.
The new shrubs are doing well along the fence line. This is the flowering currant planted last summer.
The grade three class planted Muscari under the shrubs last fall.
The Kale is starting to bloom as it prepares to go to seed. Don't forget to collect seed later on once the pods have formed. The yellow flowers of Kale are a bee magnet so we will be attracting pollinators to the garden.
The Forsythia is just about finished blooming but the yellow and blue look great together.
Thanks goes to Kristian for building some mason bee houses and installing them on the pergola. Please help yourself to soil for your gardens. We will use some of the soil to level the dips in the lawn and to top off flower beds.
Our next meeting for community garden members will be on April 23 at the garden at 7pm. Are you receiving our newsletter as it just went out? If you haven't, please let us know.
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