After an exceptionally dry March in the Chilterns, some of those time-honoured April showers are urgently needed to pep up an already fast moving start to our spring gardens. In the steeply wooded hillside area of Izzy's rear garden, bluebells are now appearing amongst the primroses confirmation that spring in the UK is now the fastest warming season of the year so there's no time to lose.
Outside in the garden it's full steam ahead just like Sir Nigel's A4 pacific 'Mallard' in July 1938 when breaking the world record speed for a steam locomotive at 126mph south of Grantham and now reposing in well earned retirement at the National Railway Museum in York. (you can tell that Izzy's dad was an avid train spotter making regular visits to York, Doncaster and Crewe stations)
If you didn't get round to completing all of your early spring pruning tasks last month, don't get uptight about it - Izzy is in the same boat and your garden will still be there waiting for you even though Mother Nature is steaming ahead without you - don't forget that gardening is meant to relieve stress, not create it.
Well here we are in April, a quarter of the year gone already with the spring equinox behind us and the clocks moved on an hour ......or is it back an hour? Izzy normally relies on the spring forward fall back mnemonic to be certain and even then half the clocks in the house will still be showing the wrong time until one of the offspring misses a football training session, piano lesson or ballet class complaining bitterly to the hard pressed chauffer parents about lost opportunities.
Izzy's dad still relies on the 'Peter hit Bill hard poor Bill' mnemonic learnt at school to assist the recall of the 'O' level trigonometry sin cos tan rules when estimating the heights, lengths and angles needed in the construction of home made pergolas, trellises and walkways behind Izzy's garage.
Although squares on the hypotenuse and square roots generally are undoubtedly food and drink to budding mathematicians, it's root vegetables we can be thinking about at this time of year and what better and easier one to grow than the humble beetroot? This root veg and its juice is loaded with health giving nutrients and vitamins the body needs without having to resort to vitamin pills and tables and it's easy to grow from seed.
If you baulk at the thought of having to kneel down to clear the inevitable accompanying weeds in your herb/potager garden, try using a garden centre purchased plastic trough on legs to enable you to carry out all the necessary TLC at a comfortable waist level? Fill the trough with a deep, but light soil and draw out a 1 to 2cm deep furrow, inserting the seeds at 5cm centres and thin out as the plants grow to give the remainers plenty of breathing space to develop and water well and frequently for harvesting in a couple of months.
