it is may the miraculous month of the supposed frost free date i say supposed because my
supposed frost-free date here in zone 6a ohio is may 4th it is now may 12th as of filming this
and they're calling for another chance of frost tonight which is why i never plant any of my warm
season crops out till may 15th but i digress today i wanted to share with you the things
that i am sowing from seed outdoors and indoors as well as a few things that i'm transplanting
out into the garden during the month of may now one thing to keep in mind is that most of the
crops i'm going to mention today are warm season crops and they cannot go outdoors until danger
of frost has passed now that is going to vary depending on your very specific gardening location
so you can look up frost-free dates using your zip code very easily on sites like farmersalmanac.com
most years that frost free date is pretty accurate but like i said that's usually why
i give myself about a two-week buffer after what they are claiming that frost free date
is just to be extra safe but without further ado let's take a look at what is being planted
in the garden during the month of may now one of the big vegetable classes that i focus on planting
in may after the soil has warmed and after danger of frost has passed are beans so that is going to
include almost all the beans things like bush beans and shell beans runner beans pole beans
and then things like southern peas or cow peas planted both as a vegetable crop and as a cover
crop likewise all of the corn so your sweet corn your dent or flour corn ornamental corn
and popcorn can be planted during the same time period i also like to focus on planting those
annual flowers that are easier to direct sow than they are to transplant so for me that is
things like morning glories and nasturtiums and cosmos lots of those lovely wildflower mixtures
and things like nigella or love in a mist things i can just kind of scatter on the soil and they grow
and then some years depending on the weather if it's staying nice and cool like it is this year
i will do a late direct sowing of some of my lettuces chards collards and then things like
beets and radishes and carrots now if you saw the prior months you know that i'm planting a
lot of those things in march and april as well but as i mentioned in those videos i do like to
do succession sowings so that i'm achieving kind of a continual harvest on those crops
now during may there is a whole group of vegetables that i will either direct sow or
start indoors depending on kind of how i'm doing on time and how soon i think i'll be able to get
into the garden so all of these vegetables and flowers i have grown both from direct sowing and
from transplants and have done really well either way in a year like this where it's getting fairly
late and the soil's not super warm yet and the soil is very wet and i know i won't be planting
for probably another couple of weeks i'm just starting a lot of this indoors to get a jump on it
in a year where the month of may comes in and it's really warm already at the beginning of the month
sometimes i'll just direct sow these crops so that i'm skipping that whole step of starting indoors
and again with most of these you do not want to be planting these
out until that soil is warmed and your danger of frost has passed because many of these are very
very cold tender so this is going to include things like okra pumpkins squash both winter
squash and summer squash and zucchini all of the melons so watermelons cantaloupes honeydew
galia kind of anything in that melon class cucumbers and gourds flowers and herbs
include things like castor beans marigolds zinnias and sunflowers and of course basil
and then a few vegetable crops i am transplanting in the beginning of the month i might do things
like a late sown cabbage or heat tolerant lettuce transplant
in about the middle of the month i will typically transplant out my brussels sprouts
and then after that frost free date i am putting out all the tomatoes my tomatillos
peppers eggplant sweet potatoes and peanuts so that pretty much covers everything that
i am planting this month and i'd love to hear from you what are you planting in your garden
during the month of may and be sure to subscribe to catch next month's episode
of what i'm planning in the garden during june thanks for watching and i'll see you next time