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May In The Garden
May 09 2008
After about the the first week in May we enter the brightest quarter of the year, with its centre on the longest day. The sun is high and strong, and daylength is long. Growing conditions would be tropical if it weren’t for the fact that we can still get frosts and cold weather. So any tender plants put out this month are something of a gamble, but hardening them off in a ‘halfway’ protected place, such as a cold frame, is usually safe.
Much of England is frost-free by mid May, but Nottinghamshire is liable to a late frost for another two weeks or so, so be cautious following planting advice given on the national media.
Air frosts can even occur into the first week of June, when they kill the walnut flowers, and ground frosts can happen anytime if you’re in a low lying area, like valley bottoms. The gist of this is keep a few of your tender veg plants back in case of losses, and keep updated on your local weather forecast.
May sees us enter in earnest into the ‘Hungry Gap’ – the period between the stored roots and over-wintered crops running out, and before the new spring sown crops come in. A few perennial plants are very useful for helping us through the gap – asparagus, sorrels and perennial spinaches, and rhubarb.
An annual brassica that harvests during the gap is the Spring Heading Cauliflower which crops from April to June, according to variety. This is rarely seen these days for the simple reason that it is sown in May, transplanted in July and cropped the following June, so occupying the land for virtually a year. Of course you can plant them far apart and get an intercrop in the summer, but then the distance will give you very large heads of cauliflower, all appearing in the same week. A freezer filler for sure, or you could do what I did and make a few hundredweights of picallili. The old varieties were Derby Day and St. George – which gives them their date, more recent varieties are ‘Armado April’, ‘Maystar’ and the purple-curded ‘Purple Cape’. These over-wintered brassicas have to been grown hard to survive the winter, so don’t overfeed the transplants but give a good liquid feed at the end of winter.
May Sowings
Undercover sow tender crops such as basil, calabrese, courgettes, sweetcorn, pumpkins, gourds, French and runner beans. Sow Melons for growing under cover – use a fast maturing variety like the F1‘Sweetheart’.
Outdoors sow hardier crops: beetroot, cabbage, cauliflower, coriander, kale, lettuce, parsley, parsnip, peas, radish, spring onions, sprouting broccoli, swedes and turnips.
Begin earthing up potatoes. Stake peas and sort out supports for the runner beans.
Harden off: any plants raised in a greenhouse that are going outside. A cold frame with the top wedged open a few inches is ideal for this as it allows the tender young plants to gradually get used to the wind and the cooler air.
In the greenhouse: start pinching out the sideshoots off tomato plants.
The Fruit Garden:
Strawberries: start laying down straw or another mulch to keep the berries clean. Straw is said to have a slug deterrent quality.
Tree Blossom: Check for any unopened clusters of blossom that go brown and stay on the tree. This is a symptom of Blossom Wilt, caused by the same fungus as Brown Rot, that causes mummified fruits to hang in the tree over winter. Cut off and burn any affected blossom and also any nearby spurs with wilting leaves. Also burn any old fruits as they will carry the disease spores. Good hygiene is the best organic prevention.
Phil Corbett, Cool Temperate, May 2008
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