Monty Don has shared a whole range of gardening jobs to be getting on with in April, and the majority involve planting vegetables and flowers. Having had great success planting shallots in my garden last month and lettuce in my greenhouse last week, I wanted to see what else I could grow.

Lettuce isn’t the only salad leaf to start planting this month, according to Monty Don’s blog. The gardening guru claimed that rocket is an “essential leaf to grow”. However, unlike lettuce, it is “only really viable in spring” as it quickly bolts in warm weather and is not fully hardy, but “extremely easy and quick to grow in its season”. What’s more, Monty highlighted that rocket seeds are “the easiest of all seeds to germinate”.

Rocket has a distinctive, peppery flavour that adds a punchy kick to salads and is a big hit in my household, so it made sense for me to grow this.

Rocket seeds are available from many online gardening stores, but I picked them up from my local garden centre and opted for wild rocket seeds.

Wild rocket holds a stronger flavour compared with the more common plain rocket and has a narrower leaf shape.

I decided to sow the seeds directly in the ground outside, as rocket plants develop a long tap root, so they suffer from root disturbance. It’s therefore best to sow rocket seeds directly into well-prepared soil, rather than in a seed tray to plant out later.

Before handling the seeds, I made sure to rake the soil of the area where the seeds were being planted to remove stones and other pieces of debris that can prevent the plant from growing well. 

The next step was to remove some of the soil and replace it with some of my homemade compost, which is made up of kitchen and garden waste.

After, I scattered the rocket seeds thinly before covering them lightly with the soil I had previously removed.

I then lightly watered the area before covering it with plastic wiring to prevent pigeons and other birds from digging up the seeds.

For a continuous supply of rocket leaves, I’ll be making sure to sow seeds every fortnight throughout spring.