The weather has been running rings around us all week but come rain or shine, there’s nothing we like more than getting out in the garden, seeing things grow and preparing our patch of flowers and veg.

If you haven’t already heard, we’re coming to the end of National Gardening Week here in the UK and  have been inspired by what everyone has been up to. Here are just a few of our favourite top tips and photos from the past few days. 

Did you get involved this week? What do you have growing this spring? 

Also, if you’re looking for expert gardening advice to get your patch ready for growth, check out last week’s blog post where Garden Organic’s Chief Horticultural Officer, Bob Sherman shared his vegetable growing tips for April, including the veg which he has planted in his own garden. 

Join the discussion on Twitter with the hashtag #NGW – there are some fantastic competitions including, the chance to win our online vegetable growing course with The Organic Gardening Catalogue.  

Bob Sherman is the Chief Horticultural Officer at Garden Organic, the organisation that has worked with Love to Learn to develop the online course Grow Your Own Veg. We caught up with Bob this week to find out what he’s up to in the garden and what we can be planting in the garden this April. 

Next week, National Gardening Week starts, prompting us to get outside and start growing. Actually it takes longer than a week to look after a garden and despite the freezing spring (as it is still called despite its similarity to winter this year) I have managed to get the soil prepared and some indoor sowings are sprouting promisingly. This is when it all gets exciting!

As we come to the end of the second week of April, we find ourselves desperate for the real beginning of spring and for the garden to explode into life. We have already seen the daffodils blooming and tree blossom starting to show; it won’t be long now until the rest of our bulbs and buds spring into action. 

If next week is your first venture out of hibernation along with the hedgehogs, you aren’t too late to have a great season. There are plenty of things we can get planting this week, just keep an eye out for night frost.

Vegetables we love at home that you can think about sowing or planting this weekend include:  

Peas
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Rocket, lettuce and spinach

I’m only slightly ahead of you, so get out there!

Once the soil warms up a bit you can also plant out your seed potatoes but don’t be in a rush. It is remarkable how plants catch up as the days warm.

There’s nothing quite like sitting down to a cooked meal or summer salad that’s packed full of vegetables straight from your own garden and you too can be proudly offering your own produce to friends and family. If you’re an inexperienced gardener or experienced but looking to learn something completely new this year, Garden Organic are here to help and have worked with Love to Learn to create an all inclusive course to making your vegetable growing ambitions a reality. Join me on the course and use it to work successfully through the seasons ahead.

Throughout the course we’ll take you through managing your growing plot, sowing and growing your vegetables from seed, harvesting your home grown crops and how to keep an eye out for the threats or diseases that may affect your success during the growing year. 

Despite the UK’s tendency to ignore or even skip over certain seasons throughout the year, we have planned our course around a typical spring, summer, autumn and winter, making it is simple to follow along with and easy to manage. 

So what are you waiting for? The sun is nearly out and a bountiful harvest beckons, so
let’s get started! 

Bob Sherman

Each of Love to Learn’s online courses has an overview section and the Garden Organic course is no different. You can read more about the course here and you can find videos from our course tutors on the YouTube channel here. 

The Organic Gardening Catalogue is produced in partnership with Garden Organic so you can be assured that everything in it is suitable for organic gardening.  Every purchase from the catalogue helps fund their work delivering sustainable growing projects throughout the UK.

Gift cards of the Grow your Own Veg online course is available to buy on The Organic Gardening Catalogue. 

The National Gardening week runs from Monday 15 to Sunday 21st of April.