Overview

For an overview of the full year go to my guide to gardening month my month

Jobs: Plant the winter brassicas (Brussels sprouts, kalettes, red cabbage and first succession of savoy) and the main crop calabrese and summer purple sprouting broccoli

If you are running late everything that you sowed in April, you can also sow in May, but it’s not recommended indoors as you will need all of you window sills for other May seedlings.  Outside though, that’s a better option.

• In early May we pot sow a second batch of bush tomatoes in containers for a later harvest outside
• Module sow indoors in a warm spot or propagator summer squash, winter squash, melons, French and runner beans, to plant outside in June, you could take a risk and sow in April and Plant in May too, but I think the risk is better if you have a polytunnel!
• May is a good time to plant out early successions of leeks but later successions can be planted out as late as July
• Early May is a good time to plant you main-crop potatoes although mid to late April is good too
• May is also the best time to module sow your main-crop beetroot for autumn, winter and spring (we harvest and store ours in October to make room for garlic and broad beans. You can also sow beets for winter/spring storage in early June if you have a sunny spot for them
• May is the best month for direct sowing carrots if you can protect them from carrot fly. If you pick the right mix of varieties they will keep in the ground into spring the following year. You can plant a few parsnips into your winter carrot beds, they all stay undisturbed and under nets together. It’s getting warm now, so be sure to keep your carrots damp until they germinate (I cover mine with hessian sack cloth until they germinate)
• I don’t grow much swede, but if you do, module sow it now
• Late May is also a great time to module sow a small batch of loose leaf lettuces, to replace any of your February sown ones that fail a little early
• May is the last chance for pot sowing cabbages for winter, you might sow a mix of January King and Savoy, having already sown red cabbages in March for Autumn and early winter.

Gardening Week Newsletters

The gardening week (May - Week 1, 2024)

The gardening week (May - Week 2, 2024)

The gardening week (May - Week 3, 2024)

The gardening week (May - Week 5, 2024)

This is what we harvested this month

https://youtu.be/5f-ihpFhSKo

https://youtu.be/QPSZVRPoP3I

https://youtu.be/-3dtcCW0cIY

Click this link for an expanded view in a browser window

https://airtable.com/shr8wF1CNzp3KvEv7?filter_Month=2024-05

This is what we sowed or planned to sow this month

Click this link for an expanded view in a browser window

If an entry has "planned to sow” it's planned, if it’s been sowed it says “sowed”

https://airtable.com/appZUuG0p5vkxzPmp/shrlWM8ybAzYjPjc3?filter_SowingMonth=May

This is what we planted this month