April has continued the trend of the first 3 months. Lots of sunny weather with a few very cold days and very small amounts of rain. The month started with a period of 9 days with the full sun without a single cloud in the sky. Temperates have been well over the average and it seemed we’ve jumped from winter to the summer, but then on April 13th, we got a smack in the face with the snowstorm and cold period. It damaged many of the plants and destroyed many flowers on the trees. 

Rain days blue color, sun yellow and green

After the cold period, we got a long period without rain. There were only 3 days with rain in April and the two of them have been at the end of the month. We got a total of 25 liters of rain and with the 82 liters we got in the first 3 months this is only half of the amount we should get in 4 months(210L average). 

This is very visible in the garden which is completely dry and in desperate need of water. Lamb’s lettuce which is usually harvested until the end of May is already in flowers and most of the seeds wouldn’t germinate if we didn’t water the garden. 

Over the month the most work I had was with my seedlings. I had many problems with them, lack of warmth made me carry them around, diseases killed half of the tomatoes and some of the seeds just didn’t germinate. Luckily I managed to grow enough cabbages, beans, and chilly peppers and I’ll buy some tomatoes and peppers. 

I bought some flower seedlings and planted them in my balcony containers. They are already growing very nicely and they doubled in size since I bought them. 

They are already making a little purple carpet on my balcony fence.

April has been a pretty quiet month, without many happenings. We have mostly waited for the weather to get good enough for garden works. I’ve injured my knee in the middle of the month so I couldn’t do much work so I’ll have a busy May. Still, I’ll have easier access to the garden in May. My hubby started making me some stairs to the garden which would take the stress off my knee, at least when I’m entering the garden.
There are already 2 steps before and these 6 new ones should make the steepest part of the garden easier for me. Especially while carrying the vegetables or tools to the garden. 

I had no idea the entrance was so steep until I saw how many steps it needs. I usually just step down with one foot and then went down to the garden but now I can see the difference. 
I can’t really even imagine how many steps I would need to make a whole stairway to the orchard. 
Maybe someday we’ll do that too. For now, the entrance will be enough