April just gone here on the eco micro-holding (small smallholding) in the north midlands of the UK has been a busy and a glorious month - never it seems has the countryside hereabouts looked so green, so vibrant, particularly with very nearly two continuous months of various copious plum,damson, blackthorn, peach, cherry, hawthorn, bluebells and apple blossoms, and early brilliant yellow flowering of surrounding oilseed rape fields.
Spring emerging, new growth, new promise - uplifting the spirit.
Berserk broad beans ------
In this 'growth bonanza', the veg has seemingly gone berserk: broad bean plants set out towards the end of March just three inches high were then nearly two feet high and in flower by the end of April, and both the spuds patch and onion beds well over a foot high.
With the virtually complete absence of rain in April, water to the fledgling plants has been a potential issue , with quite a bit of unseasonal watering having to be done. Even the young fruit trees in the fairly newly established mini-orchard in the small paddock have had to be given a watering canfull, just as they had to have also last spring. The dark loamy soil here is a joy to work with, but if it has a down side, it's the relatively poor water retention aspect of it. Getting water hasn't been a problem here -no hose-pipe bans as yet, and there's been the back-up of a couple of thousand litre rain-filled water containers. Having to do so much early season watering certainly makes you more aware of its essential role and its preciousness - can't be too long, if this dry weather perserveres before water rationing, though.
Such dry weather has highlighted a limitation with the new raised bed experiment which has needed a heck of a lot of watering - sticking to the older 'allotment' style of growing seems to be the answer for the future, particularly with such 'lighter' soil which at times benefits from appropriate levels of compaction. Maybe raised beds work better with stiffer, clay-based soils, with good water retention properties and 'strong' enough not to benefit from or need any compaction. Can't remember, though, seeing anywhere soil type considerations in connection with raised beds - ?
Green greens -------
The substantial beds of onions and potatoes have both had a good hoeing in April, seeds such as swedes, parsnips, peas and beetroot have gone in the ground and promisingly germinated, as have runner bean plants, cauliflower plants and courgette plants. It's a lean-ish time of year for stuff to eat, though, There are still a few heeled-in leeks to use up, and the 'early production' glasshouse unit has come up trumps with lettuce, radishes, water-cress like land cress and spring onion-type onions - all very welcome in this prolonged spell of hot weather. The star produce, here though, this time of year, has to be the organic spring greens. Their seed is sown in pots July time and they're planted out early September, to then grow a bit and stand the winter, a pretty severe one this time around, and to then 'burgeon' in spring for use mid-March onwards when there's little else available - a handy veg crop indeed, and as 'greens' on the dinner plate, mouth-wateringly tasty, fresh and tender. And then, even handier, with a cross cut in the stem where they've been cut off, resulting in a re-gowth, to be used as greens next winter mixed with swedes tops, curly kale and perpetual spinach to give greens right through the winter in most years.
Green gunnels ----------
The other major early season job has been to put wood - logs, the main energy source here - into store. It's supply has to be thought about well in advance, as it needs to be dry-burnt and a warm summer under cover in the grandly-entitled 'micro-holding logistics operational centre' (a re-cycled concrete ex garage, having the handy feature of an opening 'wall' to give easy access for wheelbarrow loads of logs) will dry them thoroughly, then to be consumed over next winter in the fertiliser production plant that is the woodstove, with then the secondary benefit of keeping us people warm (woodash is a useful potash fertiliser and also mildly alkaline, keeping the soil non-acid and 'sweet'). Good to see the woodstore packed to the gunnels with four tonnes of logs - bit of medium-term 'fuel security' - warming the cockles of the heart now, and warming the flesh next winter, all part of the ever on-going cycle.
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