May in your garden
"May brings flocks of little lambs.....skipping by their fleecy dams"
May is usually one of the busiest months in the vegetable garden. The soil conditions are improving, seeds are bursting into growth as the temperatures start to rise and a great sense of renewal is evident with Mother Nature. There are plenty of little jobs to plan and keep us busy over the next few weeks.
The Kitchen Garden
Veg
- Continue to earth up potatoes. As the emerging shoots appear, cover with soil to prevent frost damage and slowdown in growth.
- Keep your onions and garlic free from weeds with a gentle hoeing, preferably on a dry day. Weeds will compete for nutrients in the soil.
- Maintain successional sowings of carrots, peas and radishes every few weeks to stagger your crops over the summer months.
- If seedlings are strong enough, plant out cabbages, leeks, celery and Brussels sprouts. Ensure your seedlings are well protected from marauding slugs.
- Sow some spring onion to enhance your summer salads.
- Continue to sow salad leaves and rocket, harvesting the young leaves to ensure re-growth.
- Plant some rainbow chard to make a stunning statement in your veg garden.
Herbs
- Be inspired to plant up a new herb wheel or planter this year, keeping same near the kitchen.
- Secure a few roots of lovage, a fantastic aromatic for soups, stews and casseroles.
- Lift and divide large clumps of chives, replanting the divisions in some fresh compost.
- Consider planting basil or tagetes(marigolds) alongside your young tomato seedlings to deter whitefly.
Greenhouse/polytunnel
- Start applying a liquid feed to strawberry plants were the fruit has set.
- Begin to harvest your first early potatoes.
- Continue to hoe your winter onions to eliminate emerging weeds.
- Plant up some trays of mixed salad leaves to ensure fresh leaves throughout the coming few months.
- Sow some sweet peppers.
- Thin out carrot seedlings to ensure stronger plants.
- Ventilate greenhouse/polytunnel on warm days, ensuring regular watering to increase humidity.
Fruit
- Watch out for the dreaded sawfly larvae on currant and gooseberry bushes. Remove them immediately.
- Cover soft fruit plants with netting to deter birds.
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