April - originally the second month of the year (Aprilis) in the old Roman calendar (after March), its origins are a bit hazy. Possibly named after Aphrodite though the more widely accepted origin is from the Latin word aperire meaning 'to open' signifying the start of Spring when flower buds burst open.
A couple of photos from the daily garden pictures this month: the first (Photo 1) on the 6th with its fine display of tulips, and the second on the 26th (Photo 2) where the wisteria and acer take centre stage.
Photo 1: Rear Garden (6th April 2024)
Photo 2: Rear Garden (26th April 2024)
The daily garden photos are presented in Video 1:
Video 1: Daily Photos of the Rear Garden (April 2024)
The Met Office's summary for April 2024 was unsettled, wet and dull. While generally true for Hereford, the details are more nuanced. The table below summarises the weather statistics for a city-based garden in Hereford (i.e. my Davis Weather Station). Overall, not too bad and a reasonable one for gardening and vegetable sowing and planting where the absence of April frosts (unlike 2020 - 2023) helped greatly.
Daily maximum and minimum temperatures are plotted in Figure 1 (click on the figure to see a larger version). The month started reasonably warm but cooled off towards the end and meant I had to bring some of the vegetable plants in(doors) from the polytunnel because of the cooler nights.
Figure 1: Min/Max Daily Temperatures (April 2024)
In Figure 2, rainfall and solar radiation (proxy for sunshine hours) are plotted. Most of the rain fell during the first part of the month - a sort of extension to wet March. The final two thirds of the month were moderately sunny and dry though not especially warm (Figure 1).
Figure 2: Rainfall & Sunshine (April 2024)
How does April 2024 compare with the same month in 2020 to 2023? See Figure 3 and Figure 4. April 2020 was a warm month and all subsequent Aprils have been noticeably cooler (Figure 3). As gardeners, we are grateful for the absence of late frosts in April (Figure 3, orange bar).
Figure 3: Temperature Data for April (2020 - 2024)
Rainfall was as expected (i.e. normal) though mainly in the first 10 days of the month (Figures 2 & 4). April 2024 was short on sunshine hours and days with no precipitation (Figure 4). The month of April seems to be getting a bit windier (stormy?).
Figure 4: Rain, Wind & Sun Trends for April (2020 - 2024)
The next three figures are taken from the Met Office's report for April 2024. Compared with the long-term average (1991 - 2020), Herefordshire (circled) suffered from too little sunshine, about the right amount of rain and temperatures not out of the ordinary for this decade. This pretty much sums up the weather data recorded by my Davis Weather Station and located in my back garden!
Figure 5: UK Mean Monthly Temperature Anomalies for April 2024
Figure 6: UK Monthly Rainfall for April 2024
Figure 7: UK Monthly Sunshine Hours (April 2024)
Jobs in the Garden
Disinfect plant pots, seed trays, Quadgrow planters, etc with Citrox P
Pot up cucumbers, tomatoes, chilli peppers, courgettes & aubergines in 9 cm pots and harden off in the polytunnel (April 7th)
Sow celery and celeriac in seed trays (April 11th)
Sow French Beans (Cobra) in Root Trainers, a few at a time for succession sowing (April 11th)
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