It’s time to look at what to sow in April for self-sufficiency! April is one of the busiest sowing months of the growing season, making it very exciting! It is also a month when we can start to sow tender crops that we can protect and then transplant out once the risk of frost has passed. The most important crop though to grow when it comes to self-sufficiency is anything you love eating!
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25 Comments
my 1yo loves nusturshams. last year getting carried about grabbing leaves and chomping on them. it'll be interesting to see if she still likes them this year!
I grate and dehydrate my zucchini (courgette) to add to winter chili, soups, pots of (dried) beans et cetera.
The beauty and downside to living in an urban area is that you just can't grow that much. So, you focus on what you are growing and make sure it's stuff you enjoy eating. There's a lot of hope in growing in small spaces as it can go wrong and then you get very little.
in Indonesia today i try to plant sweet potato.
Very useful vid. Thanks!
Huw I like this new Series you’re always thinking about how we could get the most out of our gardening experience
Thank you! I did not know about these carrot flies, not going to hights. Then I don't have to worry, as I grow in raised beds.
I love your videos but I am frustrated the way you casually mention the raised beds and covering of beds. As a common, poor person, I can't afford to build these things. I'm doing well that I have found a farmer who will let me use part of his yard for a garden plot. Even to pay a yearly fee for plot is too much and defeats the purpose of growing my own. I love to grow in my garden but if it is costing me more yearly to do my own growing than buying from the grocers, I have wasted my time and effort. I have a bad back and bad knees and every moment I am in my garden is painful but I hope to save money and have veg when the stores are too expensive. I so wish I could build the raised begs but I have no access to used lumber and buying my own is out of the question.
Thanks for what you do teach.
Thinly slice courgette and carrot. Add oil and garlic. Roast in oven for 25mins. Turn twice every 10 mins. Delicious and I don't like courgette.
Always great to have reminders of what I should be planting…so pleased to see my first beetroot seedlings emerge😀😀😀
Hello, do you save your own seed potatoes and tomato seed as part of your self sufficiency?
Thank you for the encouragement. Our PNW weather has not yet shaken the winter cold ,we've only had three days above 60F. Usually, on April 1st, I am busy planting tomato and pepper seeds in the unheated greenhouse, but maybe autumn will be mild again, as last year I was picking the last of the green beans in late October. We gardeners need to be flexible with the climate changes. This winter I allowed the black kale, or dinosaur kale to have side shoots (I cut the plants in half late summer) and its buds are just as delicious as other sprouting kales or broccoli. Thanks for your videos, very helpful and educational.
I'm a new gardener and I planted my basil (green and purple) and they have germinated!!! My problem now is….I don't think I've mastered sowing techniques yet and I've got several seedlings in each module. What do I do? Should I try to split them into individual plants and risk killing them all, or should I cut my babies at the base and just leave one in each module, or could I plant the small groups a bit like multi sowing? Any advice would be hugely appreciated. Thanks 👍
Thank you!💚 I think you forgot to attach the end screen. It didn’t appear…
Try fermenting chunks of a firm courgette (such as lebanese white bush) with garlic, onion and slices of lemon. It might just become a new favourite. Thank you for another great video 🙏
RHS tested the hight carrot root fly could reach. Even growing carrots 2 meters off the ground didn't make a difference..
Some absolutely fantastic ideas there! I tend to focus each year on a particular crop, I want to be self sufficient in. Last year it was beans and I almost got there. This year I'm focusing on sweet pepper. Fingers crossed 🤞
It's interesting switching between your videos and Charles Dowdings videos and how your advice differs, he says not to sow climbing beans until May, is there any reason you start yours in April?
Spinach starting to flower while still in seedling trays isnt a good thing?
Idk… I am aiming simpler. It seems simple to me to just make Elderberry wine. Even Revelation says that wine will be cheap… and since I have land and I am an underachiever, maybe I can be at the drunken forefront of the elderberry wine Apocalypse market…. idk… thoughts?
Nasturtium makes the best flavoured vinegar. I collect the flowers, (lots of them). Cover with apple cider vinegar. Let it sit for a few weeks. Strain off the flowers. An amazing colour and flavour. This is also an anti inflammatory, anti bacterial and anti viral medicine.
I love courgettes – roasted with tomatoes and garlic and herbs, or in a ratatouille, or homemade minestrone (good for freezing). Loads of uses that can be frozen for winter months. Thanks for the reminders of things we can get started this month. I absolutely love growing herbs. So much wonderful flavour so easily. I tuck them in everywhere. I just need the lake that was my garden to dry out enough for me to get started! x
haha love your channel Chris Evans, I mean Huw Richards, I'm going to be sowing edible flowers this year but I just have to say at 1:44 the shot of you eating and looking up was hilarious because it looked as if you were caught eating something you shouldn't be. Great content keep making excellent quality videos.
We have bought a spiralizer to take zucchini and turn it into a vegetable pasta for summer dishes, and it works well. We are also looking at drying them and see if they are something that will hold it's quality and use it in the wintertime also.
I adore courgette, and will be planting plenty again this year. Have almost finished what's left in the freezer from last year! Think I prefer simpler tastes, so planting to suit! Brilliant video 🙂