How to start a kitchen garden: what to do in April

In a new series, our garden editor Clare Foster lays out a month by month guide to getting a kitchen garden off the ground. In this fourth instalment, keeping weeds at bay is just one of the jobs on the list
Eva Nemeth

This is one of the busiest months in the vegetable garden with a flurry of sowing. I tend to sow most things in seed trays or modules initially, but the soil should be warm enough now to direct-sow most hardy vegetable varieties, including beetroot, chard, carrots and salad crops, straight into the ground. If doing this, use a traditional garden line to create drills and follow the spacing guidelines on each seed packet. Tender crops can also be sown under cover, in modular seed trays (tomatoes, sweet peppers and chillies) or 6-7cm pots (courgettes and squash). Pot these on as they get larger, or plant outside once the weather is warmer towards the end of May.

What to plant in April (and other garden tasks for the month)
Gallery4 Photos
View Gallery

I always grow sweet peas in the vegetable garden. If I have been organised and sown them in autumn, they will be ready to plant out his month. I love making rustic supports for them from pliable, freshly coppiced hazel: it is not difficult and there are video tutorials on YouTube. You can also use hazel to make supports for climbing beans, which can be planted out in May. The other main task for this month is to keep on top of weeds. As the temperature rises, these will multiply, and the easiest method of weeding is to hoe regularly before they get too big. The range of hoes can be bewildering: if you have recently started your patch and are still dealing with perennial weeds, a heavy-duty Dutch hoe is what you need. For precision weeding in smaller spaces, choose a sharp-bladed weed slice with a triangular or arrow-shaped blade, or a sideways-style swoe hoe. For raised beds and troughs, a small hand hoe is useful.

The hoe down: five of the best weeding tools

DeWit Dutch hoe
This is one of the best traditional examples, made from super-sharpened, high-quality carbon steel
Burgon & Ball ‘Weed Slice’
For smaller beds and weeding between narrow rows, try this.
Niwaki ‘Weeding Hoe’
This Niwaki ‘Weeding Hoe’ is a lightweight hand hoe and comes in left- and right-handed versions.
Sneeboer’s ‘Royal Dutch Hoe’
This hoe is ideal for dealing with pernicious weeds
Swoe style hoe
The small blade of Wilkinson Sword’s ‘Stainless Steel Swoe Style Hoe’ is designed to reach in between rows and behind plants.