Vegetable Seeds To Sow in April

Posted on 02. Apr, 2011 by Tracey in How To Grow Veg

April is the best month to start your vegetable sowings although there is still frost about so protect your tender vegetables under a cloche or horticulture fleece. The soil will have also warmed up enough to sow your seeds direct into the ground.

Broccoli

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

There are a few different types of broccoli that relate the flower head size of the plant. Sprouting varieties have small heads on stems whereas calabrese type of broccoli is the larger headed ‘true’ green broccoli.

Broccoli is easy to grow and can be sown direct into beds in April to May. Most broccoli take quite a few months to grow, there are however quick heading varieties and broccoli raab which is a spicy sprouting broccoli which grows in 60 days.

Popular Varieties to Grow: Purple or White Sprouting (10 months), Calabrese (4 months), Quick Heading Broccoli (2 – 3 months), Broccoli Raab (2 months).
Sow: April to May
Harvest: July to August (Raab), August onwards for Calabrese, March to May the next year for sprouting varieties.

Courgette

Courgettes (or Zucchini) are great plants and you’ll only need 3 or 4 plants which will keep giving throughout the harvesting months producing a heavy crop. If you haven’t enough space for a trailing plant, they can be trained up trellis or there are smaller container (bush) varieties available.

Popular Varieties to Grow: Black Beauty, All Green (bush), Striato d’Napoli (stripy & good for small beds), crookneck (yellow), Tondo Chairo Di Nizza (round shaped courgettes), Nero di Milano (easy to pick variety).
Sow: April to May
Harvest: July to September

Potatoes

Potatoes in Raised Beds

Potatoes are one of the easiest vegetable to start growing, there’s still time to buy ‘seed’ or ‘tubers’ from your local garden centre and some online suppliers will be selling them at a reduced price, so there’s definitely a bargain to be had! First Earlies and Second Earlies should be planted in pots or raised beds in April and Maincrop Potatoes need to be planted by May.

Plant Out: April to May
Harvest: July to October

For more Potato Advice on how to plant, diseases, chitting and more – Visit my Potato Advice Pages.

French Beans

Beans - Dwarf French

If you love green or yellow or purple beans, French beans are the first type of bean you’ll want to grow to get a quick harvest in June. They are a great crop to start before runner beans in May so that your bean harvest will be extended over a number of months.

There are plenty of colours available to brighten up your vegetable garden, yellow french beans taste sweeter than their green cousins and I’m about to try growing purple beans this year so I’ll let you know what they taste like. Unfortunately they loose their purple colour when cooking.

Popular Varieties to Grow: Purple Tipee, Safari, Maxi, Minidor Yellow.
Sow: April to May
Harvest: June to October

For more details click here to find out How to Sow French Beans in Root-Trainers and view my harvest of yellow glorious beans.

Shallots

Shallot

April is last month you can plant out your Shallots in beds or containers so they get a head start. As with potatoes they are still available from online seed suppliers. Plant them in trenches and cover over with soil leaving the tip out. Cover the ground with netting or a cloche if you have a problem with birds pulling them out of the ground. There are a variety of different shallots, if you want a good taste look out for culinary varieties.

Popular Varieties to Grow: Golden Gourmet (reduced bolting), Longor (exhibition type), Red Sun (cooking), Banana F1.
Plant Out: March to April
Harvest: July onwards

Summer and Winter Cabbage

Savoy Cabbage - Cantasa F1

Cabbages are sown in different seasons to gain a year round supply of cabbage. The general rule of thumb is Sow Winter Cabbages April to May, Sow Summer Cabbages February to April and Sow Spring Cabbages in July & August.

Summer Cabbages: Minicole F1, Golden Acre, Derby Day, Greyhound.
Sow: February to April
Harvest: July to August

Winter Cabbages:
Sow: April to May
Harvest: October to February