The gardening week (May - Week 1, 2024)

Glorious May!

May 04, 2024

Useful links!

I know a lot of people struggle to find their way around all of my resources, so I thought I’d add a section of useful links, in this newsletter, so most questions are just one click away as you are reading this. I will also move this list to the end of the newsletter, so it doesn’t get in the way, but for a couple of weeks I will keep it at the top.

The most useful lower level links

The reference info section of my eBook, lists what I actually sowed, planted, harvested each month, plus all of the tours and guide videos for that month

Monthly growing guides (what to sow, harvest fresh and eat from the store room each month)

Comprehensive growing guides to every type of veg that I grow

The section of my eBook that covers the basic tools and techniques of gardening (sowing, planting, pests, weeds etc)

The section of my eBook that covers the more advanced tools and techniques of gardening ( extending the season, successional plantings, spacing)

Using grow lights and alternatives to extend the season

Introduction to growing under cover with fleece, low tunnels, polytunnels etc

The chapter of my eBook that covers conservatory gardening

The chapter of my eBook that covers greenhouse gardening

The chapter of my eBook that covers polytunnel gardening

The chapter of my eBook that covers cold frames and low tunnel gardening

The chapter of my eBook that covers extending the season with fleece

The chapter of my eBook that covers outdoor gardening

A guide to my database, how to use it and how to take a copy of it

Useful database links

The types of veg that I grow, roughly ranked in my order of priority

The varieties of herbs, fruit and veg that I’m growing this year

Overview of all of the successions for year round gardening (I don’t grow/recommend all of them) main crops successions are the most reliable

What I’ve sowed so far this year

What I’ve planted to far this year

What I’ve harvested so far this year

First harvest dates for key successions

The pots and trays that I use with my comments and ratings

The nets and other covers that I use with my comments and ratings

Information on root depth for each type of veg

Information on germination temperature for each type of veg

Information on pesticide use for each type of fruit and veg

List of fruits and veggies that benefit from Mycorrhizal associations

How long seeds last for each type of veg

Which types of veg are heavy, medium and light feeders

Perfect brassica planting weather

My main crop brassicas were sown mid March and potted on mid-April, which means they are now only 6 weeks old, but they’ve grown fast in the greenhouse, so I’m eager to get them planted. I’m looking for a weather window where the wind is light, it’s not too sunny and it’s above freezing. Ideally we would have a bit of rain too.

I’ve loads of videos showing me planting brassicas, the one above worked out well, although the leeks down the centre didn’t make it! My growing guides have more information.

Here’s a look at my weather for the next ten days, about as perfect as we can get for establishing new plants in spring.

I also watered the pots well with the fruit and veg protection nematode, this provides some protection from cut worms and cabbage root fly. I don’t use collars anymore, because they always blow away.

You can see below what I mean when I say that I needed to get them planted.

These are kalettes and although they’d be happy for another week in pots they won’t stay healthy much longer. Just look at this root system, only 12 days after potting on and you can see that I’ve removed the lower leaves so that I’m able to plant the stem, nice and deep.

I’ve also planted up my next batch of tomatoes, these are Tumbler and they’ve gone into the polytunnel. The polytunnel doors are open at this time of year - even at night - so the tomatoes (and courgettes) are under fleece for a week, while they adjust.

The greenhouse tomatoes have good sized fruits on them now, so they should be ripe in May, these new plants should give us a harvest in June and my main crops should follow in July.

Gardening problems this week

Each week I will highlight any problems I’m having:

I tried to squeeze a succession of radish and turnips in before the kalettes, but the kalettes are ready now. The radish are ready, but the turnips really need another 7-10 days, so it’s a compromise. I think I will move the kalettes outside and try and keep them healthy in their pots. Not every succession works smoothly, especially in April, when growth rates can be slow outside.
I’m having a new house roof fitted this May, which means my conservatory roof is going to be covered with plywood, hence very dark. I’ve got a lot of heat loving plants in the conservatory and so I’m going to have to move them to the greenhouse, this problem was solved by planting the brassicas and fortunately the weather also warmed up a lot, but the timing only just worked.
The polytunnel strawberries have aphids, so I sprayed them with soapy water. I find this often happens and I attribute it to my unreliable watering, the plants in the greenhouse are much better because I water them little and often, reducing the stress. On average weak plants get more pests than strong ones do, but of course there will be many exceptions to that.

Old new stuff

Here’s a few reminders of things that are already in the database/book, but that anyone who’s started to follow me recently might not know about.

Sometimes it’s useful to see a list of everything that I’m growing, herbs, fruit and veg this year. I like to scroll through it a few times a year to check that everything deserves a place on the list and I’m often rationalising. Here’s the first few things on a very long list …

First harvests of 2024

It’s now that time of year when a year round gardener starts to reap some of the benefits of those early sowings and over-wintering. That’s why in spring I start to track my first harvest dates. Here’s the progress so far this year, ignoring most of last years lettuces, spinach, salad onions, Asian greens etc. New this week are the first courgettes.

Spring growing overview

As mentioned above, you can now browse my seasonal guides for each type of growing environment that you have, you can find those here.

Sowings for May

Here’s my new sowing guide for May, as always, significantly updated since the preview that I did last month. You can find my database for May here too.

Sowings for the week

It’s great to be back sowing! It’s also slightly nerve wracking as these are critical sowings, but that’s one of the unexpected benefits of having a greenhouse, I’ve already done early sowings of most things, so I know the seeds are good.

It’s been an important week. I sowed/planted my last batch of potatoes, although I might be tempted to do a late planting in late May for a harvest in April. I find that planted later Charlotte potatoes sprout just a few weeks later too, although this might just be natural variance. Anyway I find that planting in late May or June is much better than the usual Christmas potato timing (July/August) which almost always gets blight.

I also did my main crop sowing of squash, Debbie - who is the squash fan - has decided that of the dozen types of winter squash we’ve tried nothing comes close to Crown Prince for mature squash and Sweet Dumpling for eating younger. I saved some seeds of Centercut last year and so I will also try a few to see if they bred true because they are not available in the UK. Everything else on the list is just successions, except the golden purslane which is our favourite salad leaf in summer.

If you’ve not tried it yet I really recommend it but be aware that it’s a prolific self seeder and you want to let it seed, because the seed pods are lovely too.

Here’s everything sown to date, in more detail.

Not germinated yet

Everything has geminated, except this week’s sowings.

Germinated this week

Everything I was waiting for last week is now up and I’m delighted, especially to have all of my main crop melons and my main crops courgettes up. I do my courgettes a little later than most, because I already have 5 early plants in pots. These eventually get exhausted, usually in July and by then these main crop plants will be fruiting.

Pricked out

Nothing this week.

Potted on this week

Nothing this week and thank goodness, because the greenhouse is crammed full.

Greenhouse progress

This week I’m in the process of clearing all hardy veg out of the greenhouse. The vast majority of the plants are going in the ground and the rest onto the hardening off tables.

This gives me a lot of space for the sweetcorn, celeriac, celery, tomatoes, peppers, melons and courgettes. These will soon be joined - hopefully - by the winter squash and the beans. The greenhouse will have quite a different feel to it then. I’ve also moved the large cucumber plants out of the conservatory, they have plenty of fruits now, none ready for harvest.

It’s also now much warmer and we have gone from light frosts to close to 10c outside, so I’ve upped my heater to 12c, which costs very little, but MIGHT help with fruit set and the peppers, melons and squash will certainly enjoy it, it comes on for about 5 minutes every 30 minutes from midnight.

Polytunnel progress

The polytunnel is bursting to the brim with cold hardy spring crops: lettuce, radish, Asian greens, cauliflower, beetroot, celery and calabrese, but in an uneasy mix it now has tomatoes, courgettes and potatoes. This isn’t ideal, the hardy veg needs it cool and the tender fruits need it warm. Usually at this time of year this makes for time consuming management: lots of trips to the allotment to open/close doors and apply/remove fleece. This year though the long range forecast shows only mild weather, so I’m just leaving the doors open.

I’m now almost convinced that next week I can start to clear spring crops and replant with a few early melons and tomatoes, all plants that I can afford to take a risk with. I can also start to clear space and move the potatoes outside.

I will probably wait until next week, to allow me to take one more harvest and then I will start the transition.

Planted this week

As mentioned earlier it’s brassica planting week, this is such an important time! At home I only protect from birds, because I’m able to keep an eye out for caterpillars on a daily basis and if needed I’m able to spray with Bacillus Thuringiensis. On the allotment we generally use butterfly net for brassicas, because we can see through it. I find that fine nets often hide problems and can be more trouble than they’re worth. We still use fine nets for carrots though.

Here’s everything planted this year so far.

Waiting to be planted out

I’m finally all caught up! This is close as I ever get to being on top of my plantings!

You can see all of the details here, note the links to growing guides have been added.

Sowing’s for next week

It’s May, that means I take a bit of a break from sowing and I will be back in a couple of weeks. This gives me chance to get on top of planting!

You can find all of the details for May here, make sure to look at the notes section, and the details of where I’m sowing and where I’m planting etc.

Growing guides for May

This link takes you to all of my monthly guides, where you can find a lot more than just my growing guides. I particularly like the list of videos produced in the relevant month in years gone by. Click here for May’s guides.

Because I’m always experimenting you might find me sowing a few things that are not on this list, but you can always look those up from the complete list of guides, which you can find here.

Downloadable resources

Last year I experimented with providing downloadable versions of my database, I’ve updated these below with the latest information. Please feel free to give me feedback on these.