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Grow Your Own - May Jobs
May usually heralds the last frost date. This allows you to start planting out a much wider range of plants and vegetables which have been growing undercover. Be aware though of late frosts and cover with horticultural fleece if necessary.
What to Sow & Plant
Vegetables
Sowing Outdoors (directly into prepared beds):
- French beans
- Squash
- Cucumbers
- Pumpkin seeds
- Sweet corn
Top Tip - Sow Sweetcorn in a grid pattern with around 45cm spacing. Sow 2 seeds per station, if both germinate the weakest can be removed.
Sow for harvests in the winter:
Purple Sprouting Broccoli
Plant Out (after all risk of frost has passed):
- Tomatoes
- Courgettes
- Pumpkins
- Other indoor grown plants after hardening off
- Celery
Pot on
Brussels sprouts which will be ready for the winter are now ready to be transplanted if they have been sown early. mid spring.
Fruit
Sowing Indoors
- Outdoor melons
-
Alpine strawberry seedlings.
What is ready to harvest in May
Vegetables
- Spring lettuce
- Spring cabbage
- Salad onions
- Salad leaves
- Radishes
- Asparagus
Fruits
-
Rhubarb
- Asparagus beetles: Watch out for and can be removed by hand.
- Flea beetles: Cause problems on brassica plants, but you can keep a look out for typical small holes that they make and ensure additional watering to help them grow well despite the damage.
- Carrot Fly: If growing at ground level protect with insect proof mesh / netting.
- Apple Sawfly: Treat to prevent damage fruit blossom (Blossom Wilt), usually only necessary if it happened the previous year.
- Capsid Bug: Treat to prevent damage fruit blossom (Blossom Wilt), usually only necessary if it happened the previous year.
- Codling Moths: Add traps to apple trees
Pigeons: Brassicas and Peas are a particular favourite at this time of year, so given them some projection from pigeons.
Diseases:
- Spur Blight: Look out for and treat on Raspberries, Blackberries and other fruit shrubs.
- Cane Spot: Look out for and treat on Raspberries, Blackberries and other fruit shrubs.
Weeds: Ensure weeds are kept down and keep this up throughout the summer.
General care
Vegetables
Potatoes: Start earthing up as the plant grows (around 20-25cm tall, leaving only 5cm above the soil to allow continued growth. This prevents new potatoes greening in sunlight.
Tomatoes: Remove side shoots on cordon tomatoes as soon as you see them. These can be found in the angle between the stem and leaves, usually at 45 degrees. They will take away energy that could be used to grow the fruit and reduce yields
Broad Beans: Stretch string along the top of plants to provide support and stop them collapsing under the weight of developing pods.
Peas: They will need supporting with pea sticks, netting, or twigs that have been taken from the garden.
Fruit
Fruit Trees: Remove suckers that grow from the base of the tree
Liquid Feed: Fruit trees grown in pts will benefit from a feed every couple of weeks.
Strawberry Plants: Remove flowers on new runners planted after September.
Watering: Ideally use rainwater to water Blueberries, Cranberries and Lingonberries.
Melons: If you are growing melons, now is the time to warm up their grow bags, simply by putting them in the green house. Ensure they are well watered prior to planting.
Grapes: Indoor vines will need to be hand pollinated, simply by running hands over the flowers
Water Well: Especially those in pots and plants against walls are at risk from drought stress even if there has been some rain.
Pollination: Ensure bees and other pollinating insects can access fruit flowers that are usually caged or covered.
Blossom: Protect from frosts if neccesary