
Just two months after Valencia was voted by Forbes Magazine the best city in the world to live in (https://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/33510/valencia-is-the-world-s-most-liveable-city-here-s-why), two other Spanish...
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WHERE exactly in Spain you live makes a bigger difference to the weather than you might have thought if you come from a northern European country with a more consistent climate.
Even without taking the Canary Islands into account – given that these are off the coast of southern Morocco and close to the tropics – the variety of temperatures, humidity and general forecasts across the mainland, Balearics and the north African coastal enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla is far greater than the land-mass size of the country would have you believe. Winters inland, at altitudes, in northern parts, and especially all three of these combined, can be considerably colder and harsher than even in the north of Scotland; in the south-east, bordering the Mediterranean, they may never get more bracing than springtime in southern England or northern France, although with rare, short-lived and extremely intense episodes of almost-monsoon-like rainfall. But both can go either way, the heat of summer is dry inland and humid and semi-tropical on the east and south coasts, the northern strip spends two-thirds of the year with intermittent Scotch mist keeping it bright-green, and summers here can be either mild and springlike with cool nights, or swelteringly hot.
April is possibly one of the least-predictable months anywhere in the country for climate and temperature. One day you could be topping up your tan on the beach, the next day you could be in thermal pyjamas, and rainfall can be anywhere from absolute zero to flash floods, via drizzle and pervading damp.
It's rarely freezing (although watch out for early-hours frosts if you live inland or high up), or consistently sweaty, though, and it happens to be one of the best months of the year to plant whatever you want to have yielding fruit in high summer.
Despite this, you'll have to monitor these newly-planted crops constantly, ready to shield them from the elements if needed, give them extra water, drain them or cover them if it rains too much, or filter out excessive sunlight – if they're in pots on a terrace, you may have to move them around a lot.
Luckily, some types will tend to grow well anyhow, almost in spite of the climate, and are actually hard to stop – although the extent of that depends upon whether you just want to be able to enjoy the anecdote of eating a cherry tomato you grew yourself, or whether you're aiming for total five-a-day self-sufficiency.
If you're planting in a garden or allotment, early April is the time to prepare the ground – weeding and sectioning off which areas you want to use for your vegetables – or, if you're working on a terrace or balcony garden, to go shopping for pots, bags of soil, plant-feed, and other essentials.
Those of you who live on the Mediterranean and south coast may have even started planting in January, given that in these areas, the thermometer rarely drops past the zero mark and, in any case, frosts close to the sea are extremely infrequent, although it is unlikely you'll start getting shoots until about now.
What should you plant in April to harvest in summer?
If you started off from seed between January and March, by now, you may well have shoots or plantlets ready to move to larger pots, beds or the allotment; if not, you still have time to sow some seeds now in order to get some results for your summer salads.
And there's quite a variety you can successfully grow from seeds or shoots in April – even fruit that is coming into season right now, such as strawberries.
These are a spring fruit in all bar the far north of Spain, rather than a summer fruit as they are in northern Europe; expect to see market stalls and supermarket shelves overflowing with them at the moment, and at exceptional prices – typically about 50% than they would cost you at any other time of the year.
Root vegetables which should be planted in April for a summer harvest include carrots, leeks, potatoes, and beetroot; salad vegetables such as lettuce, cucumber, peppers – which often flourish better in early autumn, even if planted early in the year – and tomatoes, which are fairly hardy and not difficult for amateurs to grow; bury one in a pot and, even if you do nothing but keep the soil moist, you'll probably have a handful of fruit by summer. They will normally die off in the extreme heat of the Mediterranean over July to September, but if you cut them back to ground level, the same roots will probably spontaneously shoot up again at around mid-April the following year.
Courgettes, aubergine, pumpkin and squash, spinach, and runner beans should all be planted this month if you're hoping for a summer harvest, and for the fruit bowl, strawberries – which will typically yield between about March and June the following year, depending upon the climate where you live – and melons, including watermelons.
What's ready to harvest in April?
Again, this depends upon where you live – oranges abound on the Mediterranean coast, and other than the less-abundant late varieties, are now coming to an end; the best of them will be over next month or the following, and those that are left will be expensive, so they are also at their cheapest between roughly January and April, having started their harvest in around October or November.
Lemons have a longer season – in fact, they are typically harvested year-round; apples of different varieties are, too, although the selection and quality tends to be wider between autumn and early spring, as are pears, particularly conference pears, which are currently on sale at a very reasonable price and in abundance.
More southerly climates will start getting bananas as early as April – these are not widely grown on the mainland, although a tree tended to carefully can give a small yield, but are very much in season in spring in the Canary Islands, where they are usually sourced from; their prices in supermarkets have gone down somewhat in the last month or so, and they are typically larger and more flavoursome at this time of year.
Strawberries are now being harvested, especially the large variety, and April and May is when they are at their most readily-available, best quality and flavour, and cheapest; from around early April, prices can drop to under half what you pay the rest of the year, so now is a good time to stock up if you're into jam-making.
Those living in a Mediterranean climate may have come across nísperos, or loquats, for the first time when they moved in – resembling a plum in shape and size, with the texture and colour of a peach, they can be quite bitter in the early months of the year, but April is when they start becoming bigger, plumper, juicier and sweeter. In the province of Alicante, delicatessens specialising in local produce even sell níspero jam and wine.
Next month – May – will bring cherries in industrial quantities. The Mediterranean provinces, especially areas a short distance inland from the coast, are famous for their cherry-farming – one of the key 'cherry hubs' is the village of the Vall de Gallinera, in the valley of the same name, in the northern Alicante province, which largely lives off its May harvest and even holds an annual festival to celebrate it.
As for vegetables, the list gets longer as winter progresses and shorter as the months become hotter, with the greatest variety flourishing in November and December and the fewest in July and August; but many species are robust enough that they can produce year-round and there is no specific season when they are at their best or worst.
For April, if you've been tending to your vegetable patch, plant pots or allotment properly all year, you'll be able to get enough to make up salads, curries, ratatouille (pisto, in Spanish), and still just be able to cook up winter warmers such as roasted root veg and vegetable soup.
Garlic, courgettes, pumpkin and squash, onions, asparagus, spinach, lettuce, turnips, cucumbers, peppers, leeks, radishes, beetroot, carrots and cabbage all flourish in April, and many of them will keep yielding all summer if cared for properly.
Just two months after Valencia was voted by Forbes Magazine the best city in the world to live in (https://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/33510/valencia-is-the-world-s-most-liveable-city-here-s-why), two other Spanish...