The Kitchen Garden

Vegetables and Herbs

May is the month for sowing most vegetables outdoors - French and runner beans, beetroot, broccoli, cabbages, cauliflower, carrots, kale, leeks, lettuce, spring onions, parsnips, spinach and turnips. Try to stagger the sowings so that they crop over a longer period.

Sow seeds of sweetcorn this month in 3in pots at 17C (60F) for planting out next month and begin to harden off home-raised outdoor tomatoes in a cold frame.

Sow pumpkins under glass in individual 3in pots at 65c (22F). Harden off in due course and plant out next month in richly manured land. Make a metre ring of compost around the plant so you can water generously into the cavity.

On indoor tomatoes nip out the sideshoots which sprout away at the leaf joints, and keep the plants well fed.

If the weather is kind, plant out pot-grown plants of sweetcorn, 12-18in apart in square blocks, rather than rows, to assist pollination which is done by wind and not insects. Alternatively, seed can be sown direct in the ground for a later crop.

Cut down some clumps of chives, and feed and water, to keep them coming fresh from the base again. Allow some to flower, but do not let them seed.

Draw up extra soil around the young shoots of early potatoes. This gives the tubers underground some extra protection from light, so they don't turn green. If frost is forecast, protect the plants with horticultural fleece, or more soil.

Look out for blackfly clustering around the tips of broad beans. They are best removed by pinching off the shoot tips and squashing under foot. If you were organised enough to sow French beans last month, plant them out now, at 6in intervals, but be prepared to cover them with fleece overnight in cold spells.

There are lots of tempting herbs on sale at garden centers now. If you grow them in pots, choose a sunny terrace or windowsill and plant into John Innes no 3 compost, which is free-draining and easy for roots to settle in. Look out for lemon-scented thyme 'Doone Valley', with golden foliage, and deep-crimson-flowered thyme 'Ruby Glow.' No herb garden should be without rosemary and lavender, and basil can go outdoors next month.

We are really into the salad season now. Sow assorted salads every couple of weeks for continuous supplies and keep a sharp eye on their watering needs, the odd light drizzle of rain is not enough.

Place a collar of felt around the stems of cabbage when planting out to protect from cabbage root fly.

Fruit

With a little luck, you may begin to see the first fruit on your strawberries by late this month. The birds will enjoy them very much if you don't provide some protective netting over them. Newly planted strawberries should have the blossoms picked off until they become well established. Tuck straw among the plants to keep the fruit clean from soil splashes and to keep the soil moist.

Check the water needs of wall-trained fruits, especially those being grown under glass and make sure that wall-trained fruit trees, especially stone fruits, have had plenty of water if the weather heats up.

Prune bush peaches, taking out dead wood and crossing branches, and encouraging an open centre.
Raspberry canes should be tied in to straining wires as they grow to prevent wind damage.
Apply a good manure mulch to rhubarb and begin to crop before the stems become tough and sour.
Continue to protect fruit blossom from late frosts where practical by the use of horticultural fleece.