Kitchen Garden Magazine

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Jobs for May

May is a great month in the kitchen garden, with early sowings making an appearance on the plot. The greenhouse and polytunnel and every windowsill will soon begin to bulge with the promise of all those seedlings that will feed us for the rest of the season and beyond. Keep the fleece handy however, late frosts may still strike

Fruit in brief

• It is too late to plant most bare-rooted fruit now, but container-grown specimens can still be bought from specialists and garden centres for growing on in containers or the open ground.
• Continue to plant strawberry runners that have been kept in cold storage by the nursery. Some gardeners like to pick off any flowers produced during the first season to conserve the plants’ energies for the following year.
• Tie in the new laterals (sideshoots) of grapes as they develop and as the flowers form be prepared to pinch out the growing tips two leaves beyond the embryo bunch.
• Erect fruit cages and netting over bush fruits and strawberries as the fruit begins to form in preparation for the onslaught by hungry birds.
• Check gooseberries regularly for signs of sawfly caterpillars and pick them off or spray as necessary.

TOP TIPS

• Don’t let the weeds take control at any stage or they will quickly crowd out your seedlings and encourage pests. Remove them, by hand if necessary, while still small to keep root disturbance to your crops to a minimum.

• Be prepared to thin seedlings regularly to give the remaining plants room and light to develop. This is best done in stages and the final seedlings to go can often be used as delicious mini veg.

Plant out brassicas

If you have sown some brassicas earlier in the season, or have ordered some plug plants from a specialist, they should be ready for planting out this month, once well established and hardened off (see page 22).
Cabbages like firm soil in order to produce tight heads and sprouts will become 'blown' if grown on freshly cultivated soil. So if you have recently turned your plot or beds in preparation for the spring, having scattered 28-56g (1-2oz) of general fertiliser to the soil and raked in, preferably a week before planting, tread over the area to compact it.

Choose an area which was manured in the autumn. A slightly alkaline soil (pH 6.5-7.5), helps to discourage club root disease. Check the level with a simple kit purchased from your garden centre and correct this prior to planting if necessary, adding lime instead of the general feed. If you are practising a crop rotation (see KG Feb 08) you may already be liming periodically anyway.
Plant your seedlings at the appropriate spacing for the type – summer cabbages 45cm (18in) apart all around, Brussels sprouts, 90cm (36in) all around, cauliflowers 60cm (24in) and broccoli 45cm (18in). Spacings can be reduced for harvesting as mini vegetables or if growing compact varieties.
Firm in well and give a little tug to make sure before watering in thoroughly.

Summer cabbages should be provided with cabbage collars (available from garden centres and mail order catalogues or you can make your own using carpet underlay, see p.27) to protect them from cabbage root fly attack.
Remember that tall plants such as Brussels sprouts and broccoli will need some support to prevent them from blowing over prior to harvesting.

For lots more advice, see this month's issue, available to buy online!

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