Angela, who runs Sunday Buzz Community Garden sessions, has written this blog about April in the garden. Join her every Sunday 1pm – 3pm, or Hannah every Thursday 10am – 12pm.
April has been such a positive and exciting month in the garden, and it really feels like spring has arrived. With the warmer weather and lovely sunshine, everything is starting to wake up, grow, and thrive.
One of the highlights this month has been our regular Sunday volunteers who have now joined us for more than four sessions in a row! It has been wonderful to see familiar faces returning and becoming part of the garden community.
The warmer temperatures have really helped with germination, and we’ve been busy planting seeds and getting ready for the growing season ahead. We even made seed snails, which was a fun and creative way to start seeds and get everyone involved.
We even had a visit from Bristol Good Food, who made this great video on seed snails as part of their #BristolGetGrowing campaign.
We’ve also been transplanting young plants, including beans and mangetout, into the garden beds. To support them as they grow, we created a beautiful structure for them to climb and grow under, which is already adding shape and character to the space.
The garden is starting to fill up with produce, and it’s exciting to see everything taking shape. Our directly sown lettuce is coming up nicely, and the potatoes are pushing through too. We’ve been making the most of our space by double cropping in one bed,growing lettuce alongside potatoes, so the lettuce will be ready to harvest before the potatoes need the full space. It’s a great way to increase productivity.
Nature has been very active too, with more butterflies , ladybirds and bees visiting the garden, bringing even more life and colour to the space. We also made nature-friendly seed bombs to help support pollinators and encourage even more wildflowers to grow. I definitely need to get myself on that butterfly spotting course!
Our dead hedge is also looking beautiful at the moment.
There is so much to look forward to in the coming months, and it’s exciting to see the garden becoming fuller, greener, and more productive each week. Spring is definitely springing, and we can’t wait to see what May brings!
Haiku:
Seedlings emerging
Pollinators fill the air
Blossom falls like snow