GrowSmart Calendar - April

We're into autumn now so it's still warmish but with more rain. It's a good idea to do a clean up of the garden as a preventative measure to help keep pests and diseases away in the new growing season. Harvest the last of the summer's crop too.

Sow broad beans, brocolli, carrots, cress, leeks, mesculin (lots of different leafy greens), onions, peas, radish and spinach.

Plant of the month - Peas

A wonderful cool season crop - fresh peas are a tasty garden treat. You can eat the sweet crunchy pod of some varieties such as 'Sugarsnap'.

Peas like the soil to be a little alkaline, so dig in some dolomite lime along with an organic fertiliser. Climbing peas are good value as they take up 'air space' but bush or dwarf peas can also be grown.  A row of climbing peas needs at least 2m high support (secure netting into rows of stakes). They have little tendrils which cling to mesh rather than the twisting growth that climbing beans have.