Small Pots, Early Plates: Six Succession Sowings for the April–May Gap
Photo: Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
April and May are the awkward months. The parsnips are finished, the kale is bolting, and the broad beans are still a month off. This is the hungry gap, and it catches out even organised growers. The answer is not a bigger winter salad patch. It is a handful of tiny sowings, timed to arrive just before the main season.
The trick is to use the space you already have: a windowsill, a cold frame, a cloche over a raised bed. Sow small, sow often, and treat each sowing as insurance rather than a guarantee.
How to make the plan work
Start with clean pots and fresh compost. Keep notes, because the hungry gap is won or lost on timing. A sowing made in late January on a warm windowsill will behave differently from one made in a cold frame in March. Harden plants off before planting out, and use fleece or netting where pigeons and flea beetle are a problem. Water sparingly in cold weather.
1. Pea shoots
Where: windowsill or greenhouse. Sow: January to March, every three weeks. Harvest: three to four weeks after sowing, cut-and-come again.
Fill a tray or deep pot with compost, scatter dried peas thickly, cover with another centimetre and keep damp. Cut the shoots above the lowest node and you should get two or three cuts. This is the fastest fresh green of the gap and tastes like peas because it is peas.
2. Radishes
Where: cold frame, cloche or protected bed. Sow: February to March, little and often. Harvest: four to six weeks later, from April.
Radishes sulk in cold, wet soil, so warm the ground with fleece for a fortnight before sowing. Sow a short row every two weeks rather than one long row. Pull them small and sweet; leaving them to swell makes them woody.
3. Spring onions
Where: modules under cover, then a protected bed. Sow: late February to March. Harvest: May onwards, including thinnings.
Sow in modules and plant out when the roots fill the cell. 'White Lisbon' is the dependable choice. Use the thinnings as baby onions and leave the rest to bulk up. They are slower than radish, which is why they need an early start.
4. Baby turnips
Where: protected bed under cloche or fleece. Sow: March. Harvest: May, about six to eight weeks later.
'Tokyo Cross' is quick and mild. Sow thinly, thin to 5cm and eat the thinnings as greens. Small turnips are a different vegetable from the woody giants of winter; they need speed and moisture, not size.
5. Pak choi
Where: cold frame or a sheltered bed. Sow: March. Harvest: May, as small heads or baby leaves.
Pak choi is fast but fussy. It bolts in cold snaps and gets shredded by flea beetle, so cover it with mesh. Sow a few seeds every fortnight and harvest young. If slugs are a problem, start plants in modules rather than direct sowing.
6. Leaf beet or chard
Where: modules under cover, then a protected bed. Sow: February to March. Harvest: baby leaves from May, then cut-and-come.
This is the reliable bridger. It is not a salad, so it earns its place in stir-fries and soups. Sow two or three seeds per module, plant out under fleece and start cutting outer leaves when the plants are big enough. It will keep going long after the broad beans arrive.
A quick reference
| Crop | Where | Sow | First harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pea shoots | Windowsill | Jan–Mar | Mar–Apr |
| Radish | Cold frame | Feb–Mar | Apr–May |
| Spring onion | Modules | Late Feb–Mar | May |
| Baby turnip | Cloche | Mar | May |
| Pak choi | Cold frame | Mar | May |
| Leaf beet | Modules | Feb–Mar | May |
The point is the gap, not the glut
Don't try to feed the whole street. A tray of pea shoots, a short row of radishes and a dozen spring onions can make the difference between a month of shop-bought bags and a month of small, useful harvests. Stagger the sowings, keep the fleece handy and accept that some will fail. The broad beans will arrive soon enough; these little sowings just keep the kitchen ticking over until they do.
