Your vegetable garden in May - Grow Your Own |
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Why not have a grow in a pot this year? You’ll find lots of tips on the One Pot Pledge growing cards. Spring has made a slow start this year. It is May and the purple sprouting broccoli has only recently started to crop in many places. May is the month of the infamous 'Hungry Gap' Sowing and raising of vegetables is reaching its height - but pickings are rather slim. Ideas and tips to avoid this period can be found in our Get Started guide, 'Banishing Gaps and Gluts' The month of May has started with a cold snap, including ground frosts. Keep some fleece (or net curtains, sheets of newspaper or whatever) to pop over plants to protect them overnight if frost is forecast. And don’t be tempted to put tender plants out too early. If plants sown indoors rather too early are potbound and unhappy, it can make sense to sow again. Later sowings can soon catch up. |
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Module trays are invaluable if you are filling the hungry gap |
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Things to do in the vegetable garden this month
Protect potatoes from frost by ridging (earthing up) and covering emerging shoots with straw.
Runner bean wigwamPrepare a runner bean site by incorporating manure or garden compost into a 18in strip, one spit deep. Tie in bean poles, either in a wigwam shape or opposing poles with a horizontal strut to add strength and rigidity.
Continue cutting asparagus spears.
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Green manures alfalfa, buckwheat, crimson clover, Essex red clover, fenugreek, lupin, mustard, phacelia and trefoil are all appropriate for sowing in May. See our Get started guide, Green Manures (requires members' password) or purchase the Garden Organic Step-by-Step 'Green Manures' booklet.
Green manures seeds are available from The Organic Gardening Catalogue. -
Hoe regularly to keep down weeds. For more information on weeds go to our Organic weed control section.
- As the soil continues to warm, you can begin to plant out some of the more tender crops, and to sow them directly. A good start makes all the difference to how they will perform eventually.
- Support peas with twiggy sticks or pea netting.
Growing conditions can vary dramatically across the country, and also even within a locality. If you are new to growing and are unsure about exactly what to do when, try asking other vegetable growers nearby. And be guided by the weather and soil conditions.
Sowing and Planting
Beetroot, carrot, lettuce
and pea (4 weeks old)Continue to sow outdoors
M these crops may also be raised in modules for transplanting. M Beetroot early and maincrop; until July M Calabrese until end of July Carrots early; until end of July Carrots maincrop; until end of June. Sowings made in June should miss the main flight of the carrot rootfly. M Kohl rabi until August M Lettuce looseleaf, Cos, crisphead and butterhead. Lettuce, apart from crisphead varieties, germinates poorly when the soil temperature goes above 25°C. This can happen in summer. To avoid this risk in hot weather, sow into well watered soil between 2 and 4pm, then cover with some form of shading material for the first 24hrs. Salad onions until mid June; sow winter varieties from August onwards. Peas maincrop, mangetout and sugarsnap [ until end of July]. Where pea moth is a problem, delay sowings until mid May, so they will be flowering after the pea moth lays its eggs. Salsify until end of May Scorzonera until end of May Spinach summer; until end of May 
Begin to sow courgettes
& marrows outdoors
Sow runner and
French beans directBegin to sow direct outdoors
M these crops may also be raised in modules for transplanting. M Courgettes, marrows and pumpkins choose courgettes and marrow varieties that are resistant to cucumber mosaic virus where this is a regular problem. Pumpkins tend not to suffer from this disease. Minimum soil temperature 13°C. M French beans, dwarf or climbing for eating fresh; sow until end of June, or July with protection (dwarf only). Minimum soil temperature 10°C. M French beans, dwarf or climbing, for drying choose specific varieties for drying (check out French bean varieties in the Organic Gardening Catalogue); sow as early as possible to give a long growing season. Minimum soil temperature 10°C M Runner beans best transplanted (from deep modules or 'rootrainers') where slugs are a problem; sow until early July. Minimum soil temperature 10°C
Dwarf runner beans avoid the need for tall supports - but the beans tend not to be as long and straightM Florence fennel choose a cultivar that is suitable for sowing before mid June; some cultivars are very sensitive to daylength and will bolt if sown before the longest day (21st June); sow until early August M Sweetcorn minimum soil temperature 10°C; sow until early June M Swede until early June Temperature tip
Sweetcorn, courgettes, marrows, pumpkins, cucumbers, tomatoes, French beans and Runner beans are temperature sensitive crops. If they are sown in soil that is too cold, germination will be poor, and any seedlings that do appear will not crop as well as those started in warmer soils. The critical period is when the seeds are taking up water in order to start the germination process. Once this is complete, lower temperatures are acceptable.
See individual entries for temperature requirements.
Cabbage can be transplanted
into a prepared seedbedSow in a seedbed to transplant
M these crops may also be raised in modules for transplanting. M Leeks last sowings in early May M Cabbage autumn and winter varieties M Cauliflower autumn and winter varieties M Sprouting broccoli until mid May M Kale (borecole) until early August To make a seed bed:
- Choose an area - a corner of your vegetable plot for example
- Remove weeds and rake soil to a fine ‘tilth’. Disturbing the soil stimulates weed seeds near the surface to germinate.
- Leave the prepared seed bed for 2-3 weeks, watering it if dry. Lightly hoe off the emerging weeds. Sow immediately into the prepared, weed free bed. This is often called the ‘stale seed bed’ technique.
Sowing in trays and modules to transplant
Vegetable Preferred temperature Beans, French and runner 10°C Courgettes 13°C Cucumbers 13°C Melon 13°C Pumpkins and squash 13°C Sweet and chilli pepper 15°C Sweet corn 10°C Tomatoes 10°C Planting outdoors
Always 'harden off' young plants that have been raised indoors, in a greenhouse, or under a cloche, before planting them out. This means gradually getting them used to the outdoors, so they develop a thicker 'skin', before they are planted out. This will help them withstand the cooler, drier, windier conditions outside, and they will grow away quickly.
To harden off plants, put them outside in a sheltered, not too sunny, spot during the day for a few days, then leave them out overnight for a couple more. If the weather is very wet or windy, try and rig a temporary roof for protection.
Don't plant out frost tender crops until after the last frost. As this is not always easy to predict, have some temporary protection (cloches, fleece, sheets of newspaper) available to cover plants over night if frost is likely.
Pest watch
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Protect against carrot fly
Cabbage white butterfly
eggs and caterpillars
Weevil notched broad bean leaf
Brassica collar to protect
young cabbage
from cabbage rootfly Blackfly (the black bean aphid) first appears on the shoot tips of broad bean plants.
Check regularly and squash any seen. If the plants are flowering, the top growth can be picked off, blackfly and all. You may find that one or two plants, often at the edge of a plot, become very badly infested, with the pests on flowers and pods too. It's best just to remove these plants and bury them in the compost heap. If necessary, an insecticidal soap spray can be used - spraying the pests directly.
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Protect carrots, parsley and parsnips from the carrot rootfly, in areas where this pest is a problem. Our carrot rootfly factsheet tells all. Factsheet requires members' password.
Online access to our organic factsheets is password-restricted to Garden Organic members'.
Find out about becoming a Garden Organic member here
You can download the complete list of factsheets with order form (PDF document - 101Kb) When you see cabbage white butterflies on the wing, start checking cabbage and other brassica plants for signs of eggs and caterpillars. Squash or pick off any you see.
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Flea beetles are pests of Brassicas (the cabbage family), radish, mustard and other related plants. They are particularly damaging to young seedlings, especially during dry weather. Check our Flea beetle factsheet for advice on protecting plants. Factsheet requires members' password.
Put out slug traps around new sowings and plantings - preferably a week or two before sowing or planting.
Pea and bean weevils eat little notches out of the edges of peas and broad bean leaves. The damage can look awful, but plants usually survive and grow away from the damage.
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Protect young cabbage and other Brassica plants from cabbage rootfly from the moment they are planted out. Brassica collars are very effective (see picture).
Plant collars are available from The Organic Gardening Catalogue
back to - What to do in your garden now
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