May

May is the busy month, greenhouse is filling fast and needs emptying.

General Garden

Feed spring bulbs with growmore or blood, fish & bone.

Check the minimum temperatures:

10c – beans, sweet corn and tomatoes

13c – courgettes, cucumber, melon

15c – chilli and peppers

Vegetable Planters

End of the month to plant out the tender plants (courgettes and aubergines) and summer bedding plants.

Soil should be warming up now but if a cold night is forecast cover veg with a fleece or old curtains.

Thin out weaker seedlings.

Direct sow most other vegetables into a wet seed drill. Best month to plant sweetcorn also.

Fruit Cage

Growing in the Greenhouse

In early May sow in modules the following – leeks, cabbage, cauliflower, sprouting broccoli

Repot pot bound plants into larger pots.

Either repot or plant outside – aubergine, cucumber, tomatoes and strawberries

Start to harden off young plants such as tomatoes and courgettes.

Sow batches of salad leaves.

Harvest

Salad crops, lettuce, spring onions and even fast growing radish.

Check potatoes also.

Winter cauliflowers, spring cabbage and sprouting broccoli should be ready.

Summary

Week 1	Broccoli (sprouting) late varieties – sow seed bed
Week 1	Celery – plant out
Week 1	Runner Beans – sow seed in pots indoors
Week 1	Runner Beans – sow seed under cloches
Week 1	Tomatoes – begin to harden off
Week 1 – 2	Carrot – sow maincrop seed
Week 2	Beetroot – plant out seedlings sown in pots indoors
Week 2	French Beans – sow seed outside
Week 2	French Beans – harden off seedlings
Week 2	Onion – plant out seedlings
Week 2	Potatoes – nitrogen feed fortnightly
Week 2	Rhubarb – apply mulch
Week 2	Strawberries – mulch around plants
Week 3	Beetroot – thin out seedlings
Week 3	Brussels Sprouts – transplant
Week 3	Cabbage (spring) – harvest
Week 3	Cauliflower (autumn) – sow seed in pots
Week 3	Courgette – Harden off indoor grown plants
Week 3	French Beans – plant out seedlings sown in pots indoors
Week 3	Runner Beans – harden off seedlings
Week 3	Sweetcorn – plant out seedlings sown in pots indoors
Week 4	Courgettes – plant out
Week 4 onwards	Onions – water in dry conditions
Week 4	Parsnip – thin seedlings to 15cm / 6in apart
Week 4	Peas / mangetout – harvest early types started off under cloches
Week 4	Radish – begin to harvest
Week 4	Runner Beans – sow seed outside
Week 4	Runner Beans – plant out seedlings sown in pots indoors
Week 4 onwards	Shallot – water in dry conditions
Week 4	Tomatoes – plant out