Jobs for May in the Vegetable Garden will be dominated by watering, if rain does not come soon!
Sow:
place-seed-in-trench
- directly into the ground – peas, lettuce, salad leaves, spring onions, beetroot, rocket, carrots, coriander & kohlrabi
Harden off:
celery plants to set outdoors at end of month
celery-plant
Plant into ground at end of month:
beans, squash, courgettes, sweetcorn & pumpkins
courgette-ready-to-plant
Crop:
- cabbages & spinach left from winter
- new-crop lettuce, salad leaves, rocket and spring onions
Other jobs:
thinning-out-beetroot
rake-seed-bed
broad-bean-plant-Optica
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Runner Beans need poles, sticks, trellis or mesh to climb up and provide support.
bamboo-wigwam
Plastic supports last for years and tend to be stronger than bamboo canes.
bean-support
When the beans are mature, they will have a great mass of foliage, which is heavy, particularly when it is wet following rain. Therefore the supports need to be strong and firmly in place.
Wigwams are fun – but require a boy scouts’ knotting technique. Suttons sell a plastic ring which hold the canes firmly in place for just over £3.
plastic ring
Thompson & Morgan have a similar wig wam cane grip - about £5 for 2.
wigwan cane grip
Hazel poles make a strong support for runner beans and climbing french beans.
hazel-pole
Hazel is said to be ’sustainable’. This is because it is a cut & come again plant – traditionally coppiced when the poles are a useful length & left to grow again.
The bean plants do not have to be tied to the pole. They find their own way to the pole and then twist themselves around it.
french-bean
Now is the time to get organised & find the supports that were put away at the end of last season, or source some fresh bean poles, sticks or trellis.
Our Maris Bard potatoes are showing the benefits of planting early under polythene.
maris-bard-9wks-after-plant
- The soil warmed up under the polythene and the seed potatoes emerged quickly.
- Once the leaf was out the plants grew more quickly.
- These potatoes were planted with only a shallow covering of soil, so that they warmed up more quickly, and emerged sooner.
new-potato-developing
- This early initial development promises an early harvest! Potatoes are already the size of a marble!
Maris Bard Potatoes
The potatoes are covered over if there is a chance of frost. The leaves can be severely damaged or killed by frost, which would reduce the benefits achieved of early planting under polythene.
Seed Tapes are a clever invention that definitely make vegetable gardening easier. Sowing small seeds at the correct spacing can be difficult particularly when you are ‘all fingers & thumbs’!
seed tape
Seed Tapes contain pre-spaced seeds in a tape. A seedbed has to be prepared as normal but then the tape is rolled out into a groove on the soil. The tapes are ideal for outdoor vegetable growing.
The advantages of using seed tapes are:
- easy to handle small seeds
- give an even distribution of seeds
- thinning seedlings is no longer a problem
- the paper tapes are bio-degradable
- easy to achieve straight rows!
- helps arthritic hands
SeedTapePackFront
We have been given this packet of perpetual spinach (leaf beet) in a tape which we are going to ‘lay’ today.
SeedTapePakBack
The carrots sown in a tape last year were very successful.
The big disadvantage of seed tapes is that they are expensive, but they do make for efficient gardening and will be a useful tool for those vegetable gardeners who are short of time.
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Asparagus time seems to have come early this year. Luckily the patch was sprayed with Roundup just before the first spears emerged. Now we have a weed-free asparagus bed, and the spears emerge quite quickly with this bit of sun.
ASPARAGUS-IN-GROUND
We like asparagus steamed for 10 minutes then topped with a poached egg. Out to supper last night, we had asparagus wrapped with bacon and grilled – delicious! My other favourite is asparagus quiche – but that takes a bit more time!
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Flowering rhubarb is a common site at this time of year. If the rhubarb flower is left on the plant, the root will be weakened & the stalks will be weak and thin.
rhubarb-flowering
Some people like to see rhubarb flowers in the garden.
rhubarb-flower
But if you are after rhubarb for the kitchen, the rhubarb flowers should be removed as soon as the flower buds are seen.
flower-bud-rhubarb
To remove the flower stem:
- Hold the flowering-stalk close to the ground
- Pull upwards twisting the stalk
The tendency to bolting depends on:
- variety – Victoria is more prone to flowering than other varieties
- maturity – older plants are more likely to flower than younger ones
- weather – prolonged high temperatures and drought promote flowering
- nutrition – lack of nutrients makes the plant want to seed
To encourage leaf growth and discourage flowering of rhubarb:
* divide the crowns every 4-5 years to keep them young
* water during the harvesting period if in drought conditions
* feed with well rotted manure or fertiliser in early spring and autumn
* do not totally strip the root – always leave 4 or 5 stalks.
* stop pulling stalks after July, to allow the leaves to feed the root
* do not force each crown more than once every two years
* provide an open, sunny site in the vegetable garden
Although flowering rhubarb looks pretty, it is not good for the production of rhubarb to eat.
It must be time to plant potatoes!
Folk lore dictates that potatoes are planted on Good Friday. Good Friday was the first day the working man would have off between Christmas and Easter. He was keen to plant potatoes at the first opportunity because they were a staple food for his family.
plant-potato-with-chits-upwards
Folk law also states that
- in Northern Ireland you plant potatoes on St Patrick’s day and dig them up on the 12th July.
- or.. on the nearest full moon to St.Patrick’s Day (16 March 2011) plant the first earlies
plant-potato-in-hole
So, it is up to you to choose which bit of folk lore you are going to follow when it comes to planting potatoes!
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Thank you Janette, Branislav & Benjamin, from Slovakia for this lovely poem:
Happiness is in the air
And everyone is glad to share
Those very special moments when
Easter’s joys are here again!
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We have been placing straw under strawberries. Mike hates the untidiness of straw, as it tends to get dropped on the way to the strawberry patch & bits of straw blow round the garden. But while he is away, I thought I would take the opportunity to slip some under the strawberry plants.
straw-on-strawberry
The advantages of using straw under the strawberries are:
- the fruits grow out onto the straw, and are kept off the soil, so the strawberries are clean
- the straw stops weeds growing
- the straw acts as a mulch and conserves moisture
- the straw protects the strawberry plants against frost in winter
- the straw holds the fruits up, allowing air to circulate freely, which keeps the fruit healthy & less prone to fungal diseases
- the straw breaks down into organic matter which will eventually enter the soil & feed the plants
straw-between-rows
We have tried alternatives:
- no straw at all because the strawberries were planted through a plastic membrane. The membrane will stop the fruits coming in contact with the soil. But I found the strawberries tended to ’sweat’ on the plastic membrane, and then rotted.
- wood chips - slugs were a problem
- straw - barley straw is my favourite & this is what we have mainly used this year. But I accidentally picked up some oilseed rape straw, which has been laid on the left hand side of the left strawberry row, in the photo below. It has crushed up more, but it will be interesting to see how it compares over the fruiting season. I would expect it to stay drier, but we will see.
straw-under-strawberry
Strawberry mats look a nice, clean alternative. Perhaps someone will read this & remember my birthday next month! You can click to buy them here! But I wonder if they will be big enough? Our strawberries tend to grow out a long way.
strawberry mats
So much depends on the season: the rain, the temperatures and the humidity. We are having a lot of misty weather just now. But we will watch the fruit and see what effect the straw under the strawberries has.
Planting lettuce plugs brings the season forward, so that lettuces can be cut early on.
lettuce-2011
Plug plants are young plants raised in small, individual blocks of compost. The blocks, or cells, are ready to be transplanted into containers or into the vegetable garden.
lettuce-from-plugs
Lettuce plug plants can be bought to bring the season forward from:
- garden centers
- or the web
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