Veg to plant in May and things to do.

ginvzt

I think it grows similar way as the normal stuff. We did grow it last year, and I have sown some earlier this year, but then I had an 'accident' where dropped a number of pots from the shelf, and being busy with other stuff, haven't re-sown it. So, I have resown it now, and hope it grows well. If not - there are plenty more seeds left!

We too got lemon grass last year, and we managed to grow one from the stem that we bought in Asda, and then I also found a plant in the local garden centre. We got a Kafir lime last year, but that dropped all leaves this winter. I have tried replanting it, and roots seemed ok, but there is no new growth appearing - I think I will have to give up...

Any

Hi guys,

I have Spacemaster cucumbers and all of my seeds were succesfull (4). According to the instructions you can grow a plant in 20cm pot, if I have 40cm pot can I grow 2 in it?
And if so how would you position them? If you imagine a line through the diameter of a pot, would you place one in about 1/3 of the line and the second 2/3 of the line? Or would you divide it by 4 and put one 1/4 of the line and the other 3/4 of the line.. (so there is double space in the middle for the plants to grow freely...)
Or am I overthinking it??:-))

ginvzt

I am going to plant out out my Romanesco either today or this weekend. I have been to Ikea yesterday and got their cheapest net curtain (~£4 for a size of 2.8m by 3m, looks perfect for the job, or so I hope), and I need to prepare the chilli spray - can anyone remind me of the recipe, please?...

I think I decided on the place where I am going to plant them, but now need to rethink where my courgettes and cucumber will go!!! Might need to move/eat some of the spinach quickly.

Another job is to plant some more tomatoes - they are getting quite tall in their little pots (9cm), and since they are going to be staying in the pots for this summer, I am going to get more buckets from Morrisons to put them in.

Another job for this weekend is getting the timber to build pergola for the grape. It is just a trip to B&Q and hope they have them in stock. It is not going to be anything big - just over the corner of one of the raised beds, that is all. We need to decide on the height. I am keen to take it a bit higher than the fence, as our fence is about 5ft, and I feel the grape could do with a bit more height.

Oh, and weeding - with all this rain weeds are growing way too fast!!!!

[Deleted User]

I had a really good session at the allotment yesterday, just pottering and it was so peaceful. Hands and knees weeding and trimming and neatening the grass path edges and mowing with my £29 hand mower, lovely and satisfying. I think I am all planted up now except for a couple more tundra cabbage and a couple of red russian kale and I think I`ll take a couple of sampson borecole up. The red russian has just sprouted from a repeat sowing as I am using the original as a cut and come again at home. Tundra and sampson are ready to go. Oh what relief to get the allotment full!! Now it is just weeding and watering until july

I had to cut 4 flower buds from elephant garlic and so far just 4 from lots of onions. I`ll be glad to get my rotation going properly next year as the onions and potatoes are taking far more room than I want. I got a new tool from just digging, it is a heavy pointy hand tool and wow it is good. It sliced up and down the path edges and also broke up lots of clay clods so I was able to do a very good earthing up of my charlotte potatoes and my cara mains

I have finally sorted my seeds and packed away the ones I won`t be repeat sowing. All in water and air tight lock and locks.

I am amazed at the speed of growth of my cabbages in my raised beds, duncan and hispi in particular. It isn`t worth planting them in the allotment as I get such good results here, just in the beds. My oskar peas have dozens of pods but I am wondering if I`ll be growing peas next year

I have 26 tomato plants all doing well and will have fewer next year, call it an experiment as some are in popup greenhouses, many in grow pots, some just in rolled down potato bags. Several outside. If they all do well then I`ll be bottled, saucing and dehydrating like nobody`s business

Squashes transplanted well to the allotment and I have had to peg one already as it was going away from the bed. Cucumbers are quietly doing well in a planter, with a layer of fleece around the canes for now. Peppers are static, no flowers yet. Aubergines have buds.

All in all, a good start and boy am I glad that march and april are out of the way

Sally_A

For those of you that have tomatoes well underway, if they are a cordon/indeterminate variety - don't forget to nip out the sideshoots, as these are growing thick and fast: and if they are outside make sure you support them with a 4 or 5ft cane (stick an eye protector of sorts over the top of the cane).

I have posted elsewhere, under Garlic I think - but check garlic for scapes, ie the central flower stem that it starting to sprout - nip these out as low down as possible, and don't waste them, if they are tender they can be chopped and added to dishes, if they are a bit chewy, bung them in whole with roasting meat, but remove before serving - easier if you don't chop the older ones as picky to fish out, but cutting lengthways allows more flavour to escape.

[Deleted User]

I picked some dill out of my garden today and decided to dehydrate some, well blow me, I had enough for 7 large trays in the dehydrator. They are ready and crispy and packed away, they smell wonderful. You should dehydrate herbs at <100 F in order to preserve the oils. Well that got me on a roll so I am now drying parsley and summer savory. Tomorrow I`ll dry rosemary and sage and also mint. It always seems to me that herbs are at their best in spring and it is nice to keep some of that flavour

Sally_A

Re herbs - sage leaves freeze well whole, as do basil leaves. Not tried mint as I'm not a big fan, but rosemary is an evergreen so should have leaves available all year round.

As for sage, if you want finely chopped leaves, crumble as soon as taken from the freezer as they will "shatter" nicely, as will basil.

If you want whole sage leaves, just let them defrost.

I'm still unsure if they lose any flavour after freezing, try the usual amount and if you think you need more just double the amount.

funkymonkey849

Finally got the last raised bed prepared and planted out the courgette plants. Growing chard and spinach in this bed for the first time!

Picked some radishes yesterday woohoo and little gems are nearly ready

Have planted french beans and runners but NOTHING has happened yet! It's been a week

alixandrea

funkymonkey849 wrote: »

Have planted french beans and runners but NOTHING has happened yet! It's been a week

Don't worry yet, it took a couple of weeks for my beans to start showing. I planted 16 and all but one germinated so you should do fine. Just need to be a little bit more patient.

Alixandrea

lolly5648

I have just been given some purple sprouting broccoli plug plants. Can I grow them on in Morrison buckets or should they be in the ground? Also do they need any special treatment - I assume I won't get anything from them this year as I think they are a winter plant?