Harvest
Hardy lettuce, spring onions and fast growing radish should now be available. How about winter cauliflowers, spring cabbage, sprouting broccoli and kale as well? If you’re lucky you’ll also be enjoying a luxury crop of asparagus. If you’re missing any of these, why not take a note to try them for next year?
Weeding
Priority with warm weather and rain is to keep on top of the weeds. Hoeing them off as small seedlings will make the job far easier than waiting for them to grow and send their roots down. Hoeing is best done on a dry day so the weeds don’t have a chance to recover.
Sowing
There is a lot to sow this month and with many crops you can sow one set and then a few weeks later re-sow to give you a succession of fresh vegetables at the peak of perfection. If a dry May, it’s a good idea to soak your seed drill before sowing and then just water with a fine rose after. Have a go at…
- French Beans
- Runner Beans
- Beetroot
- Broccoli and Calabrese
- Cabbage and Cauliflowers
- Chicory
- Kale
- Kohlrabi
- Peas
- Turnips and Swedes
- Your salad crops should be sown in succession
- Lettuce and Leaves such as Rocket
- Radishes
- Spring Onions
Sowing under cover
- Sweetcorn
- Courgette
- Marrow
- Pumpkin
Planting Out
- Brussels sprouts
- Summer cabbages
- Celery
- Celeriac
- Leeks
With leeks a good rule of thumb is to get the seedling about as thick as a pencil. Dib a hole about six inches deep using something like a spade handle and drop the seedling in. Water well and allow the soil to fall back in naturally. The old method of trimming the roots and top before transplanting leeks is not actually a good thing and has been shown to be detrimental. It's a big enough shock to the plant being taken out of its seedbed!
In the greenhouse
- Aubergine
- Peppers (Chilli and Sweet)
- Cucumber
- Tomatoes
Fruit
Mainly a matter of ensuring you get the crops rather than the birds. A fruit cage is a big investment but very effective, otherwise netting to keep the birds away. Strawberries planted this year will perform better in subsequent years if you remove the flowers so they don't set fruit in the first year but concentrate on building their strength for next.
Justin Thyme
No comments:
Post a Comment