In the northern hemisphere, in the Mediterranean climate, during the month of April you can begin direct sowing of the different horticultural varieties that will accompany us throughout the summer.
If you have a vegetable garden, April is not just any month: it is the ideal time to start your summer vegetable garden, the land already offers the ideal conditions to begin direct sowing of many varieties that, with a little care, will feed us throughout the year.
It is also time to start planting the seedlings that we will have prepared in the previous months in the garden.
But what can we direct sow? Well, all the species and varieties of pumpkins, watermelons and melons, also from the beans and kidney beans, from Indian wheat…
For the first mentioned crops, it will be necessary to guarantee a good space in the garden, others such as beans, good tutors for them to climb (reeds are a good option, traditionally they are cut during the waning moon in January).
Some of the varieties of pumpkin like the long one o the little one and some melons like melon made or the yellow melon, they can be grown in the dry season, as long as the spring has been rainy and the soil allows it.
To be able to direct sow any of these varieties, in general, we will have prepared the soil beforehand. The technique is very simple, we need to make a small hole, not too deep, and we will throw two or three seeds, just after we will cover. It will be necessary to water, two tips to keep in mind are: Having left the seeds to soak the evening before and throwing a little water into the hole before throwing the seeds.
The distance between plants will depend on each species, in general terms, beans and kidney beans about 20-25 cm, corn about 30, melons and watermelons a minimum of 50 cm, and pumpkins at least 1 m. All of this depends on the management of the crop, since, if it is done in the dry, the planting frame will need to be expanded.
Another system that we can do, with direct sowing, is the milpa, do you know it? It is an agricultural practice originating in present-day Mexico and Central America, where the cultivation of corn, beans and squashes is combined in the same space. Taking benefits from one crop to the other. The corn provides a guardian for the bean vines, these fix nitrogen in the soil accessible to both the corn and the squashes, and the squashes cover the exposed soil, protecting it from solar radiation, thus reducing the evaporation of soil moisture. This practice has been carried out since before colonization by Europeans. And although there, to carry it out, they previously burn the vegetation of the space they will cultivate, here we can adapt it to the cultivation methods that we practice.
