Veg to plant in May and things to do.

Sally_A

May is the month when most last frost dates occur - mine is after about 19th May.

Runner beans - first get your poles up, before you do that give the ground a dig over and put any more spare compost, manure etc into the patch. I prefer to grow my runner beans up a crossover style bean frame rather than a wigwam, as runners grow so thick and fast the congestion at the top of a wigwam is a bit muddled.

End of May - get your sweetcorn in that were sown in April in pots or a sheltered spot; if you have mad dogs fence off the area to stop them running through the plants and snapping them off and rendering them useless - I managed to nab some of that orange builders plastic fencing stuff - looks ugly, and I'm sure Mrs Up-the-Top-to-the Right gets twitchy about it.

Tomatoes can also be planted out now if you are sure of no frosts, for outdoor crops, afix them to sturdily inserted canes now to avoid them being snapped off in a breeze.

Parsnips - last chance to sow, and I'd say by mid May at the latest.

Outdoor cuces, can now be planted outdoors - rather than have them trailing and being susceptibel to slugs, grow them up a 3 pronged wigwam, with twine twirled around the sticks, this gives the tendril something to grab on to. Sticks need to be at least 4 or 5 ft tall.

Keep growing successional herbs on the kitchen window sill, such as basil and coriander leaf.

Loads more - Splodger Seedwapper will surely be along soon to help out.

Please ask me about any specific questions - I don't grow every veg, but will probably know someone that does

Ooh ooh - forgot Tomatoes in an unheated greenhouse can probably go into their final place on the first Bank Holiday in May (2nd May this year)

Anyhow - must go and sow some globe artichokes, every year I try something out of my comfort zone, and these are my 2011/2012 guinea pigs.

Loads more that I will think of, as i do it. will try to keep you all up to date

The basic message is prepare well for planting out.

Sally_A

Forgot courgettes and pumpkins another load to plant out end of May on a well manured mound; make a moat like thingy around the plants and water from there, they hate water directed at the main stem.

splodger_seedswapper

i would not dare interfere with your monthly thread sal

scotsaver

Thanks for this Sally, I've been potting on most stuff in the Greenhouse but running out of space, had a couple of failures so resown and keeping fingers crossed - this gardening lark is so addictive, I have an Allotment too but this is my first full year of planting on there so I have sown more in the Greenhouse than normal - turning into a Full-time job keeping on top of it all.:cool:

cubegame

Sally_A wrote: »

Forgot courgettes and pumpkins another load to plant out end of May on a well manured mound; make a moat like thingy around the plants and water from there, they hate water directed at the main stem.

A good tip for all courgettes, marrows and squash is to lay several filled water bottles around the plant in a ring. The water will heat up during the day and release the heat slowly at night. You get much better crops, especially for squash.

skintbint_2

thanks - just got an allotment two weeks ago and dont have any idea when to plant what! so will get the parsnips ready for sowing. Have managed to get radishes, rocket, potatoes, beetroot, broccoli, carrots, green beans, onions, spring onions all in, some lettuce, tomoaotes, basil, corriander, cucmbers in the green house. Is there anything else i should be sowing now to plant out in june/july? or is there anything else i can help fill the allotment with as i still have over a third to fill, preferably from seed as trying to do this a cheaply as possible.

gazza975526570

skintbint wrote: »

Is there anything else i should be sowing now to plant out in june/july? or is there anything else i can help fill the allotment with as i still have over a third to fill, preferably from seed as trying to do this a cheaply as possible.

How about cabbages, cauliflowers, sprouts, courgettes, runner beans, peas?

[Deleted User]

I have had to start putting tomatoes out this week. We moved last july and have worked very hard to create a `hard` landscaped garden with 3 colours of gravel/slate on 4 tiers, 3m high from base to side, it was already tiered. We had to go with the flow, which is very hot and s facing and bone dry here as we are sheltered by hills. Everything has to be in raised beds, pots and planters. The heat has made everything grow fantastically well and that includes my 5 varieties of tomatoes, all of which have solid stems and are in bud. I also have windy conditions as the wind sweeps in almost daily from the bristol channel. It is all very different to what I was used to in the past.

I had too much success with seeds and have too many plants of all sorts, so am spending endless hours transplanting but have almost finished and have to say thank goodness for the patiogro troughs as I just fill with compost and water gel and plant lots of things in them. I am going to make a note to restrain myself next year.

Re the tomatoes, I have 1 bush variety called alaskan fancy and they are supposed to be very early but I have decided that next year it will be all the single stem type as bush will take up too much horizontal space. The pop up shelters for the growbags are performing very well in strong winds and the tomatoes inside look very comfortable but they are only 3`6 high and I have planted in growpots so not a huge amount of height. The varieties in pop ups are sungold, gardeners delight and alicante.

I have 2 tomato growbags left but am going to transfer that compost into double planters as well as using ordinary compost. I still have 6 borgese tomatoes to plant out as I want to dehydrate, bottle etc and they are used for dehydrating. If I get enough this year then I won`t be growing them again next year as my dehydrated tomatoes will last a long time. The double planters that I set up 2 days ago are doing the business and the tomatoes in those look well and the perforated polythene covers are also good

I haven`t finished with tomatoes yet and will do more today

I put 3 cucs out yesterday into a double planter with 6 canes and they arealso protected by perforated plastic. It might get colder at night this week but I`ll use fleece if necessary

I am being careful with my countless leek plants and sling a cover over them late afternoon as the leek moth is imminent

My runners are huge and very quickly too, all in large rootrainers so will be ok until later this week. I planted half my dwarf french beans into a planter and they are settled as are 6 celery in a planter

I`m going to the allotment later to see what is what and maybe to do a little seedling thinning and possibly hand weeding

I have been pulling (thinning) immature onions as we have masses too many for storage. The thinned onions are lovely chopped and sauted or in soups or in any recipes that needs onions. They have a lovely taste. They are big and substantial and I use the whole plant

diddly74

I only got my allotment yesterday. Never really grown anything before - yes a few things in my garden last year, but they were just experiments rather than particularly choices.

I am so excited, but there is a lot of work to be done on the allotment before planting can commence - it is currently just a square in a field (that used to have horses on). Farmer has only just decided to "develop" his field for lotties, so I have just a 50 x 20ft patch that is just dirt - no beds or anything. Don't know where to start!!!

Sally_A

Diddly - do it in blocks this year, suggest 1m x 1m will give you 12 beansticks in wigwam format. Seeds can be sown in pots until you have prepped the ground and got the sticks up. I use wigwams for french beans as there seems to be less "congestion" at the top.

I've just planted runner bean seeds in pots in the greenhouse, 30 for me and 30 for next door. I grow these in the traditional row of beans sticks.

Bean sticks need to be approx 7ft.

If you're quick sow some sweetcorn in pots too, minimum of 25 for a 5 x 5 block.

Get some courgettes in quick too.

Sambucus_Nigra

Diddly - I'd cover it in the biggest bits of cardboard and plant through it - otherwise it will be waist height in weeds before you know it.

All the rotavating will throw up new weed seeds and they will love the empty soil.

Leave the paths and beds arrangement to sort out once everything dies back; it takes a while to get sorted and you need to get crops in.