Tales From The Plot April 2026
April – Emblem flower – Bluebell.
April – Month of Hailstones and Sunshine.
Full Moon – 2nd, is Paschal, the first after the Spring Equinox and the date by which Easter is calculated.
April Full moon names – Seed, Budding, Frog, New Shoots, Egg, Grass, Awakening, Fish, Pink.
How has it got round to April again already? Is it me or did winter seem shortish this year. Tatties are chitting and the ground is warming.
For Richard, (this column’s usual writer), I’m sure the six months he’s now been in hospital, may not seem like they’ve flown by at all. His partner reports that he is stabilising, which is a great encouragement after all this time. After such a length of time in two hospitals, he is of course now familiar with many of the staff across varying specialisms and is, like his whole family, deeply grateful to every one who has helped, or continues to care for him from the basics of comfort to the deepest complexities, and to all those unseen staff behind the scenes, endlessly testing and retesting.
So, the clocks have changed, days are lengthening and off we go.. New season up and running.. Some of us now have our plots cleared after winter – ‘ready to go’ like a blank canvas full of promise, others have left the ground covered with plants to nourish the soil to give micro organisms, general ground dwellers and invertebrates chance to thrive in the cycle of resting winter earth. Others have covered the ground with light suppressing materials to minimise weeds. We all have our preferred methods and there is much variety in our choices. I like to clear as I go – when needed, rather than all at once. Richard and I are similar in that regard, but our methods differ. He has open ground, for larger crops, I have divided sections for smaller varied crops. These help me tend the ground from each side without walking on the soil, so are useful for my general minimal dig style. They have weed suppressant paths between, which I like for kneeling comfort with my dodgy knees, access and tidiness.
For fun I gave sections a name to loosely help organize my rotations. The naming began 11 years ago as three areas – ‘sun, shade and dapple’. More recent additions have names that amuse and date me!
CROSBY – is flower power for pollinators
STILLS – is for perennial fruits/ herbs
NASH & – is for food crops
YOUNG – is for young ‘nursery’ growth
KATE BUSH – is for trying new varieties.
MAY SARTON – is for varying inspirations.
May Sarton makes me think of creativity and growing, beyond being task orientated and reminds me to stop, sit down and think. I do think stillness is a big part of my ‘Lotty’ life, partly because my body demands it and because it adds value to my experience there.
Sarton was a gardener, writer of over 50 books, a poet, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Science. She was a hands-on gardener into her late 70’s after a stroke and wrote about aging and independence. So when I sit down on my plot I know there can be lots more ‘future’ on my lotty, no matter how I feel on any given day. A few minutes sitting this way helps the s/urge to carry on .. and up I get to do something else with revived keenness.
Over time I have created 5 very necessary places to sit. When the energy of a new April season with all its seed sowing, plug planting, preparations and busy physicality gets going – its easy to forget to pace myself. Enthusiasm is a driver, mostly in good directions, but stopping short of wearing myself out each visit, is a necessary focus and I don’t think I’m alone in needing to think about that. All ages benefit from pacing.
As Aprils ground and conditions bring us to thoughts of planting out. I remind myself to balance my enthusiasm with a bit of restraint. Not all veggie sowings can be put outside yet. Things like french / runner beans, kale, cauliflower, salad, lettuce, sweetcorn, could still be under glass a little longer. Safer bets now (around frost risk) are cabbages, fennel, beetroot, spinach, swiss chard, peas, onions, garlic, artichokes, asparagus. We just have to follow our own initiative, forecasts and earth wisdom.