Planting guide for May

A busy time of year

Traditionally, April and May are the two months of the year which have been known as the ‘hungry gap’ which is often the hardest time of the year for UK farmers and growers.

This is because it’s the transitional time when we switch from harvesting any left-over crops from the previous year, and starting to sow the seeds again this year. April brings with it a hefty ‘to do’ list for gardeners as we turn our thoughts towards realising all the early summer planting dreams we planned during those long winter months.

Heritage varieties

I love heritage beetroot; a feast for the eyes as well as the palate! A few of my favourite heritage varieties include:

Bulls Blood Beetroot
This variety has an intensely dark red leaf and the foliage can be treated like “cut-and-come again” ( cutting away the mature leaves to let young leaves continue to grow or allow new growth to form and mature). Once the roots are ready, they produce a delicious salad beet.

Chioggia Beetroot
This old Italian heirloom variety is named after the fishing village near Venice where they were first grown. Chioggia boasts an eye-turning red and white pattern which, when sliced, adds a decorative style to any salad.

Squash, pumpkin and courgette

Mine are looking rather full at the moment, but if you have a windowsill that is free (or are lucky enough to have a greenhouse), then May is a good time to start sowing squash, courgettes and pumpkins – my favourite things to grow!

There are so many interesting shapes and sizes of the Cucurbit family you can grow, and some varieties store well into winter months. They are also great for the kids to grow for Halloween carving. First, prep some 9 cm pots with compost and place a seed within. It’s important to ensure that the seed isn’t lying flat as this can cause the water to puddle on top when you water and rot the seed.

Potatoes

The first early potato seedlings of the year may need earthing up now. I usually wait until they have grown to around 10-15 cm in height. Gently cover the shoots with the soil from either side of the plant, minding you don’t disturb or damage the planted potato seed.

Earthing up is encouraging your potato to grow more delicious potatoes but be careful not to expose any tubers as this will cause greening, and green potatoes are poisonous. Planting out of your Second early potatoes and maincrops can be completed in April, these will need earthing up later on.

Supporting wildlife

The common garden bumblebee (bombus hortorum) has one of the longest tongues in the bee species and they love to eat nectar from deeper more trumpet-shaped flowers such as foxgloves (Digitalis) or honeysuckles (Lonicera). Some other types of flowers to plant for these amazing pollinators would be alliums, bluebells, wallflowers, lavender, myosotis (forget-me-not) and pulmonaria.

Some easy flowers that you can sow directly that are beneficial to insects include borage, nigella and cosmos – some of these will also self-seed and come back year after year. Lots of flowers will also serve to attract a bounty of other beneficial pollinators and insects such as hoverflies, butterflies and ladybirds which are all crucial to help maintain a healthy ecosystem in your garden.