Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum) often sends up flowering shoots at this time of the year.

The rhubarb flowers should be removed as soon as they are seen. Hold the flowering-stalk close to the ground, and then pull upwards twisting the stalk. If left, the flower will weaken the root, which will then produce weak thin stalks.

The tendency to bolting depends on:

• the rhubarb variety - Victoria is more prone to flowering than other varieties
• maturity - older plants are more likely to flower than younger ones
• weather - prolonged high temperatures and drought promote flowering
• poor nutrition

To encourage leaf growth and discourage flowering of rhubarb:

• divide the crowns every 4-5 years to keep them young
• water during the harvesting period if in drought conditions
• feed with well rotted manure or fertiliser in early spring and autumn
• do not totally strip the root - always leave 4 or 5 stalks.
• stop pulling stalks after July, to allow the leaves to feed the root
• do not force each crown more than once every two years
• provide an open, sunny site in the vegetable garden

Click the link for an article on cooking rhubarb

This is a recipe for vegetable soup using vegetables available in April.

Ingredients:

Extra-virgin olive oil
Good stock
1 large chopped onion
4-6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. dried marjoram
A dash of cinnamon
A dash of nutmeg
A dash of cayenne
1 large carrot, sliced
1 handful of fresh, chopped parsley
1 15 oz can of whole tomatoes and their juice
4 large handfuls spinach
2 tbsps of brown sugar
2 tbsps of apple cider vinegar

Method:�

Heat the olive oil in a large pan. Add onion, garlic, herbs and spices, and salt to taste and stir over medium heat for about 5-10 minutes, until onions are clear.

Add carrot, parsley and tomatoes and enough cold stock to cover them by 2 inches. Bring soup to a simmer, but do not boil.� Skim any froth from the top.� Reduce heat and simmer for an hour.

About 10 minutes before serving, add in spinach, sugar and vinegar. Cover and simmer for another 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

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The Honeyeye Strawberries in the kitchen garden are covered in flowers.�

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In spite of the dry time, the soil under the black polythene is still quite moist.

The brassica seeds have gone in to a dry seedbed, so have been watered.

The vegetable garden is suffering from cold easterly winds.� The onions seem to be blown about more than the other vegetables.

The polythene has been taken off the potato bed. The early potatoes� are looking very well, and the main crop potatoes are now all emerged.

How to tell a weed from a vegetable plant is a common problem for new gardeners.

The definition of a weed is a plant out of place. So a weed is only a weed if you don’t want it there.

If you have planted a row of vegetable seeds, anything growing out of the row may be classed as a weed. It is therefore important to:

• be organised
• mark rows at either end with prominent sticks
• keep the distance between rows at least the width of your hoe
• hoe regularly between rows, shallowly, as soon as you see leaves emerging

Watch the vegetable plants within the row. Hopefully your seeds will all emerge at about the same time, and look similar. Any rogue plants can be pulled out.

One potato, two potato,
Three potato, four,
Five potato, six potato,
Seven potato, more!

Five red apples
Hanging on a tree� � � five fingers held up
The juiciest apples you ever did see!
The wind came past
And gave an angry frown� � � � shake head and look angry
And one little apple came tumbling down.
Four red apples, etc

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Five Fat Peas

Five fat peas in a pea pod pressed
One grew, two grew, so did all the rest.
They grew and grew
And did not stop,
Until one day
The pod went POP!

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This rhyme was one of the anthems sung in the Dig For Victory Campaign.� It may help present day vegetable gardeners as they find muscles they did not know they had!

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Dig! Dig! Dig! And your muscles will grow big�

� � Keep on pushing the spade

Don’t mind the worms� �

Just ignore their squirms� �

And when your back aches

laugh with glee� �

And keep on diggin’�

Till we give our foes a Wiggin’�

Dig! Dig! Dig! to Victory”

The Dig for Victory campaign was launched by the UK government during the Second World War to stop the nation going hungry.� The present messages to be active & Eat5Aday have just lead to� sales of vegetable seeds� outstripping sales of flower seeds.

In World War 2 every man and woman in Britain was asked to keep an allotment, and to turn lawns and flower-beds into vegetable gardens.

The Dig for Victory effort

• provided much needed vegetables for families and neighbourhoods
• prevented starvation
• helped the war effort by freeing up valuable space for war materials on the merchant ships

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Now,� the green revolution is driving the present Grow Your Own habit, and families are realising that vegetables produced at home

• taste better
• are good for the environment
• cheaper.

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2007 is the first year since the 2nd world war that sales of vegetable seeds have outstripped sales of flower seeds.�
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A basket of fresh picked asparagus is a real luxury.� These spears are a Dutch hybrid variety called Gjinlim.� This is their third year, so they are just coming into their prime.�

Asparagus should not be cut in the first two years, to allow the roots to build up in the bed.

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