The gardening week (May - Week 4, 2025)

Water storage and distribution

Not just gardening

It’s been another glorious week of near endless sunshine, with only a very occasional cloud. The day’s haven’t been especilly warm though, because the nights have been cold. Thankfully nowhere near the frost that some have suffered, but as low as 4c in the polytunnel and under the low tunnels. The tender plants all seemed to have coped admirably though, now that they are well hardened off.

I’ve kept finding a few gardening jobs to do, as you will see later, but most of my week has been cycling, walking and hiking, but I’m taking it easy, making sure that I get well rested.

Debbie and I enjoyed a wonderful canal side walk from Barton Grange Garden Centre to Garstang, it’s one of my favourite cold weather walks now, but Debbie’s never done it and I’ve never done it in summer. What a difference a few months makes on a canal bank!

It’s only 10 miles and completely flat, so it’s perfect for a rest day. I’ve done lots of cycling too, pretty much every day. I’ve been waking up an hour earlier than usual this week, which gives me enough time to race around before I start my normal day’s activities. Sometimes though I take my time to just explore and take in the scenery and one of the prettiest places to visit on a bike is Lytham Hall.

They currently have a famulous collection of willow sculpures on display and it’s well worth a visit, even if it’s only a short one, as the grounds are free access.

I’ve also been up in the hills with a friend of mine. We’ve walked the Rivington reservoir system, every month for about 9 years and we were both fairly confident that we’ve never seen it so low, especially in spring! Fortunately for me, these resevoirs don’t supply St Annes, they are primarily the supply for Liverpool, but it’s the same in every reservoir I visit.

I hate to share such depressing views in this newsletter, but sometimes reality intrudes on my relaxed and worry free gardening life. Here’s another view, almost scenic, but to my practiced eye, just as worrying.

Diving Deep into Water

Thankfully not only have I upgraded my water capture and distribution system on the allotment as I explained in this video.

But I’ve also made a great many changes to the way that I grow, to significantly reduce the amount of watering that I need to do, here’s a summary of the changes:

1. Extensive interplanting, to reduce the surface area/plant of soil exposed to evaporation and to reduce watering time

2. Wood chip paths to soak up and lock in winter rain water, also removing living grass paths, which pull a lot of water out of the soil as well as being a lot of work in summer (wood chip paths are a little work in early spring, but I have more time then)

3. Extensive planting through wood chip paths, to get access to all of that locked in water and goodness

4. Thick woodchip mulches on perennial beds and under trees, again to soak up and lock in winter rains and reduce summer watering, close to zero

5. Using tomato halos wherever I can for precision watering of the root zone, reduce evaporation post watering, slow down the rate at which water floods the plant and hold back mulches, allowing for deep planting

6. Strulch (chopped straw) mulches and spent mushroom compost mulches (which is fluffy and has a lot of partically composted straw) to reduce evaporation, everywhere that I’m not using wood chips

7. Slowly removing large raised beds and replacing them with tiny narrow beds for all of my climbing plants

8. Changing the mix and timing of plants. Growing water lovers over winter and in spring and autumn and more drought tolerant plants in summer. Moving the water loving plants back home, where I have so much more water capture capacity off the house roof

9. Minimising my use of containers in the polytunnel

10. Increasing my water storage capacity to 5,000 litres on the allotment and capturing water off every permanent structure on the allotment

This is about as far as I can go with my 80/20 approach to life and gardening. I’ve done the 20% of actions that deliver 80% of the water savings. I put the rest of my effort where it will make more difference, ie growing more food. I grow about £4,000 worth of food off my allotment (in total we grow about £6,000) and a tiny slice of that £4,000 goes on capturing/distributing water and paying for water from the tap. I’m at the point where saving more water makes no sense, as saving £1 worth of water would probably mean losing out on £100 of harvest.

I will have a video that goes into this topic sometime next week.

Gardening problems this week

All of last week’s problem are still with me, drought, aphids etc.

A lot earlier this year than last the cabbage whites and loopers have arrived. The loopers are always a problem in the greenhouse/polytunnel and they are so well camouflaged that by the time I notice holes in the brassica leaves they’ve always done plenty of damage to seedlings. Although they look bad now, they almost always amaze me and recover.

The cabbage whites often arrive at this time of year, but they rarely cause damage this early. Ayway this year is the exception and I’ve been picking them off and squashing eggs all week as I water.

The garlic has rust, but that’s not news, it does every year. I checked the bulb size this week (dig down and take a look) and they are swelling nicely though, so they will be fine

Other than that the only real ‘problem’ is that growth is too fast and it’s throwing off a few of my timings. The lettuce is the perfect example, my summer plants are ready now and my spring succession is still in full harvest mode. So I basically have twice as much as I need right now and unless I keep on top of harvesting them, the summer succession will loose quality before their replacements are ready. So I’ve been scambling to fix that.

I always find successional sowings in summer to be quite the challenge, because everything changes so fast, at a time when I’m least attentive and have the least time to garden.

Pests of the month

Pests vary by location, so your pests and my pests will vary. This is what I’m dealing with though:

1. Slugs and snails the dry spring has definitely kept slug and snail volumes low, as well as my concerted efforts over the last 12 months. I watered with nematodes for the first time this year. As previously mentioned I’m also clearing slugs and snails too. Lots of them are hiding in lettuces and cabbages for example. After clearing a bed I always have to give it a good water and that brings them out too.

2. Aphids are an issue now, as I mentioned above, keep the air flowing and let the predators in, if you use fine nets, keep a close eye on the plants underneath as nets can hide problems, as well as protect from them! Horticultural soapy water and neem oil are my last resort.

3. Carrot fly is out and about now, so all of my carrots are high up on my IBC tanks, or covered. I generally start with a temporary cover of envirotect while the carrots are establishing and I’m thinning and weeding and looking out for slugs and snails, but once they are established I use a fine net, in a few weeks time. I’m also watering with the Fruit and Veg Protection nematode. This nematode mix helps with onion fly, carrot fly, cut worms and cabbage root fly, so it’s a worthwhile investment for me, it’s best not to totally depend on it though

4. Cabbage root fly arrives now and in previous years I’ve lost a lot of brassicas to it. I used to try collars, but they always blow away here, so now I use the Fruit and Veg Protection nematodes. I water the brassicas with it when they are in their pots and then every two weeks after planting. I don’t usually use a fine net over my brassicas because I almost always find that the net hides as many problems as it protects from, so I prefer to see problems early through butterfly net (on the allotment) and bird net (in the kitchen garden). This year I’m going to try mulching around the roots with a thick layer of old strulch too. I’m breaking my rule this year though because the nets I’m using on my plot are my usual carrot fly ones, I need to cut some butterfly nets to size and replace them soon.

5. Cut worms are around for most of the year, but they are a particular challenge in spring and autumn, when there are lots of young plants around. I find they are a particular issue with no-dig gardening, because they are never brought to the surface for the birds to hunt. Fortunately the same Fruit and Veg Protection nematode kills cut worms.

6. There are a few types of leaf miner, but up north the worst offender is Beet Leaf Miner and so I usually cover my beetroot, otherwise they can make quite a mess of it. They go for chard and perpetual spinach too, which we have in the kitchen garden, but we don’t cover that, we just watch it every day and squash any grubs in the leaves as soon as possible.

7. Earlier than most years, I’ve also seen the first cabbage whites and found plenty of eggs, especially on the turnips. Fortunately 70% of our brassicas are under nets this year

For more on pests see my growing guides and this chapter of my eBook.

My best growing tip

It’s a daft tip really, but it’s worth repeating, sow a lot of seeds and sow spares. As we head into summer the pests start to arrive, or have already arrived, in force and some losses are inevitable. If you don’t have plants ready to go to replace them, you will often miss key harvest windows. I like to sow a few plants each month, specifically as spares for myself, but also as spares for other allotment holders. Seeds that I sow in June, can also be sold at the allotment open day if I don’t need them.

I try to pick plants that I like to eat - naturally - but also varieties that are cheap, or that I want to test the germination of, it’s also a great way to clear out old seed packets that won’t make it to next year.

This week I’m also sowing in new compost. This is an unbranded compost from our allotment shop and the amazing guy who run’s the shop - Ian - mentioned to me that it wasn’t suitable for sowing seeds. As someone who sows their seeds in the roughest, cheapest multi-purpose compost available, this intrigued me, so I bought a bag (for £3) and decided to give it a go, because his advice was based on reports from other plot holders that they’d had issues. I know from experience that these germination issues are rarely due to compost, so it’s worth testing.

Here’s the list of this month’s spares, which won’t appear in my normal sowing log, later on in the newsletter.

You might wonder, when you see spinach and tatsoi on the list, because these often - usually - run to seed very quickly in summer, but I’ve had good success by covering them at about 6pm and removing a cover at 7am, to block out the light.

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.

Ever wondered how long different types of seeds take to germinate? I have fairly good records and while dates are fairly predictable by type, sometimes they surprise you! Anyway if you want to see my results, usually I germinate everything except heat lovers at 18c and the heat lovers at 20c, you can find the full list here.

This year though I gave this data a big upgrade and creates a more compact list of typical times, which you can find here :

Where to germinate in summer

I’ve had quite a few people come to me on the allotments this year, with tales of failed germination. When I ask them where their seed trays are they often say either “a sunny window sill” or “in the greenhouse”, neither of these are - in my view - ideal places to germinate, now that the sun’s shining. Here’s my advice:

You want your seed trays to enjoy a fairly constant, moderate temperature. For almost everything 18c is fine, heat lovers don’t need it much warmer. Nowhere in the sunshine is ideal, the temperature swings between day and night are way to big, the chances of them drying out is too high and outside or in a greenhouse the night time temperatures is too low (or at least it was here).

Now that’s not to say that you can’t manage to germinate in a greenhouse when the sun’s shining in late spring or summer, just that if you want reliable, predictable results, choose a warm shady spot (for me that’s a north facing bedroom, in a corner as far away from a window as possible, or in a dark shed, or garage). In a greenhouse, get you seedlings out of the sun at least, under a table etc.

Anyway, for me this means that I’m germinating lots of seeds for my fellow plot holders.

Spring planning 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.

First flowers of 2025

Fruit set this year on all of the trees has been incredible, so it looks like the dehydrator will be running all day this autumn (powered by our solar panels). I’m now excited to see the first flowers on the greenhouse beans and we are awash with fabulous harvests!

For main crop sowings flowering to harvest dates are fairly well documented, but for early successions this data seems to be impossible to find … until now!

First harvests of 2025

There’s not many first harvests left to report now, almost everything is in harvest. This week the most notable were the first outdoor strawberries, which arrived on the very day that I picked the last of the polytunnel strawberries, how’s that for timing! I’m also harvesting the first kales of the new season this week, as well as gorgeous savoy and spring cabbages. The savoys are a firm favourite with everyone and we have plenty of successions of them in the ground this year!

The big news though is that I’ve started harvesting the Toughball over-wintered onions, I’m thinning them out, removing any clumps where I have three growing, to give the remaining two plenty of space to swell before I harvest them in mid-late June. They are already a good size and the lush greens are especially prized. We’ve not quite run out of stored onions, they were ok when we had no alternative, but now that we have fresh green ones, the pale in comparison.

I’m close to finishing the Orkney cauliflowers, the first batch should finish next week and this week I saw the first purple Graffiti’s starting to form their flower heads. Cauliflower timing is quite tricky, but this combination works so well for a nice succession form the same sowing date. I’ve eaten my first tomato, but I don’t count that as a first harvest because I’m not harvesting enough for a whole meal yet.

I’m not reporting first harvests of lettuces, spinach, salad onions etc as we have had so many successions of these.

Last harvests

The last of the polytunnel strawberries this week, so I will be cutting the foliage off these, giving them a good feed and letting them recover, ready for next year. No other last harvests this week, but I think we will run out of yacon soon. I’m not going to miss any of these spring veggies , because the fruits that replace them are a great trade up.

Sowings for the week

I’m a bit behind with my sowings, due to the good weather and I didn’t quite get the brassicas sown as planned last week, so they slipped into this week’s newsletter. I’ve never sown brussels this late before, but I wanted to see if I could get my third succession of potatoes out of the ground and still grow brussels ok.

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

Not germinated yet

No surprises here, just this week’s sowings

Germinated this week

The parsnips are up, which is always a relief. I’m doing lots of parsnip experiments this year, trying a few new interplanting strategies in light shade, but we also have one traditional bed on Debbie’s plot, growing in full sun. We didn’t grow them last year and I’d decided to stop growing them, but they are back this year, as a way to make use of beds in winter and to use bed space that has club root.

Pricked out

Nothing this week.

Potted on this week

Nothing this week.

Conservatory progress

The cucumbers are in abundance now and surviving the high temperature in the conservatory, nothing else is growing in here now, which makes temperature management and watering MUCH easier. The cucumber though, needs watering twice a day to cope with the heat.

Greenhouse progress

It’s all change in the greenhouse now. Most of the peppers are now outside during the day hardening off and they are permenatly outside now. Lots of small plants are now planted out, creating much needed space. The French bean plants now have small beans growing, so we will probably be eating French beans again next week. I’ve also planted up a couple of aubergines.

I’m watering the hanging baskets twice a day now, which isn’t much of a chore, because it’s very quick.

I’ve also had mylar blankets up in the roof, this reflects a lot of heat back out of the greenhouse during the day and reflects heat back into the greenhouse at night. The tomatoes are on the floor, because they’d just been potted on and couldn’t cope with any direct sunlight. The blanket drops peak temperature down from around 37c to about 28c, which is a big bonus.

Now that the weather is cooling for a few days, I’ve uncliped and slowed the mylar blanket. That’s the beauty of this option, it literally takes 2 minutes to put up and 1 minute to take down.

Polytunnel progress

It’s all change in the polytunnel too. I’ve now harvested all of the main heads off the calabrese and side shoots off half of them. I’m in two minds whether to take them out and finish re-planting next week, but I might hold off on some of them until the following week. Our next succession is a couple of weeks away from harvest.

The little tomatoes are doing well. When I planted them they were barely above the tops of the halos, now they almost need clipping to their strings!

Allotment and garden progress

The nights are warming up this weekend and we are going to enjoy sunny spells and showers for a few days, so it seems to be a perfect time to get the Crown Prince winter squash planted, which is always a milestone! I’ve also planted out half of my outdoor tomatoes, with a bit of fleece protection for the expected light wind.

I’ve also removed the last old kale plants, now that we have new kale harvests and as I’m clearing the spring cabbages, I’m planting courgettes, under low tunnels.

I’ve also been weeding my carrots, I like to wait until I’m also watering with nematodes that kill the carrot fly larvae.

Debbie has also earthed up the main crop potatoes. We have two successions of potatoes in the ground for harvest before these main-crops and we have two tubs of our earlies waiting for harvest too, so Debbie and the kids are in potato heaven!

Planted this week

I’ve continued to plant up tubs of yacon as space becomes free. The first outdoor French beans are in and I keep planting tomatoes, again as space comes free (eg as I harvest green and soon wet garlic). The big news is that the winter squash are planted now (fingers crossed).

My yacon this year is also all in containers, after a great year last year. Grown in containers roots are much smaller, easier to get through in a week and much easier to store.

Here’s everything planted this year so far.

Waiting to be planted out

Plenty waiting for space to open up now, but nothing is really deperate. I can still wait a while for spring cabbages, cauliflowers and calabrese to finish. But I won’t be wasting any time, because I don’t want to compromise rich summer harvests for a few dregs left over from spring.

Sowing’s for next week

Mostly follow on successions, but also the first batch of purple sprouting broccoli, the bed is prepared for it too and empty, so I’m itching to get going. I will have another batch next month.

Growing guides for May

This link takes you to all of my monthly guides, where you can find a lot more than just my sowing 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.

Sowing Guide for May

Here’s a link to the details.

Weekly Harvest

Quite a nice harvest for the worst period of the ‘Hungry Gap’, note the elephant garlic as an alternative to leeks, the first few broad beans and we are now in courgette abundance again! I’m also giving lots of peas, strawberries and spinach away on the allotments.

Note the grapes and tomatoes are still from the supermarket.

Useful links

Top level links

The website associated with this newsletter

My YouTube channel

My free eBook - Outgrow : The Art and Practice of Self-sufficiency

My complete gardening database real time access to everything!

My Amazon shop, which lists the gardening products I use, with comments

If you can afford it, you can buy me a cake or some seeds

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

How long each type of seed typically takes to germinate

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

Outgrow : The Art and Practice of Self-sufficiency is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Outgrow : The Art and Practice of Self-sufficiency is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.