April is the month our garden and orchard teams long for. Milder, drier weather allows them to be out in the gardens for longer to tackle the workload full on, providing the weather behaves of course.

Our bare root selling season has finished and was a great success. A small number of bare roots will now be potted on and once they are heeled in properly these will be for sale in our shop in east Clare as potted trees throughout the summer months. Grass is having its first cut of the season. Irrigation systems are being set up and any smaller maintenance jobs are being finished up.

Our grafting for the year is complete and now the really hard work of looking after our young trees begins. Pinching out rootstock shoots, applying clips to ensure straight growth and constantly looking for signs of any diseases. Rows and rows of young trees will be cared for over the summer months and all going well, we will have a varied selection of Irish heritage apple trees for sale in the autumn.

It’s all hands on deck in the seed gardens, sowing courgettes and the rest of the cucurbit family as well as grains, beans, beets, chard and swede. We’ll be potting on peppers and tomato varieties and planting out our onions which were earlier sown in trays. We would always recommend growing onions from seeds as disease can be brought into your garden from sets.