April Gardening Newsletter from Jane Folis

IT seems hard to believe Easter is over and what a hideous weekend it was weatherwise. Where has this year gone? It has been a very busy one for me and I was really looking forward to a few days off. I have finally had time to think about re-planting my garden and all the plants are here waiting to be put in the ground. The vegetable patch was finally dug over last weekend, in between showers, and I already have an impressive array of seedlings ready to go in the ground.

This year I am trying a few unusual crops. There are some great salad crops in the Marshall?s catalogue, such as ?Mesclun Salad Mix? which promises ?traditional young green leaves with both mild and spicy flavours?. An old favourite Greek Cress with a really hot kick to it ? fine for growing on a window sill. Aubergine Ophelia ? a baby fruit variety which is ?perfectly suited to growing on a sunny patio?. Let?s hope we have some sun and I am successful. This year I have decided to go a bit mad on tomatoes and am growing four different varieties. One of the most successful last year was ?Golden Cherry?. They were so tiny and so divinely sweet they often didn?t make it to the kitchen table!

As always, I try to grow things that are more expensive in the supermarkets ? I find it rather gratifying to think it has only cost me the price of a packet of seeds. Okay, there is the digging, watering and nurturing to take into account, but the results far outweigh the effort.

If any of you are tempted to have a try, Harrod Horticultural ?
www.harrodhorticultural.com Pinbush Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR33 7NL have small Timber Raised Beds starting from