May sees the end of the danger of frost
in many areas.
Though, do be sure to check when it ends
in your area, as for some places
it can be as late as the start of June.
The passing of the danger of frost
is so important, as it let's just
put in the tender veg, such a sweet corn,
and Courgettes, squash, tomatoes.
There's so many different types.
So there's lots of planting to do.
There's also the danger of pests
around, so we need to do something
to keep on top of them.
It's time now to plant the greenhouse
vegetables in their final positions.
So we're talking peppers, tomatoes,
aubergine, cucumbers.
Now if you've got a greenhouse with a border,
what you need to do is just to top it off
with some extra compost.
And then give it a really good soak.
The Which?
Gardening trial of feeding tomatoes
showed that it's far easier,
and you get really good results, if you add
some controlled release fertiliser
at planting time.
This will then gradually release
the fertiliser through the summer.
And give you really good crops,
without the hassle of having to liquid feed
every time you need to water.
If you do want to make sure that your crops
are absolutely the best they can be, then we
do recommend liquid feeding just
at the end of the summer,
the start of autumn, when
the controlled release starts to run out
of umph.
But otherwise, this is the easiest way
to keep your tomatoes fed.
Now if you don't have a greenhouse border,
what you can do instead
is either use a grow bag, or even easier
still, use a self watering pot system,
because then that makes it
a little bit easier in terms of watering
the plants.
Another Which?
Gardening trial showed that the best way
to keep tomatoes at peek cropping
is to water them at least twice a day.
Watering any less than this,
and you'll start to run into problems
with things like the fruit splitting
and blossom end-rot
turning the bottom of the fruits black.
Add some controlled release fertiliser
to the border and then work it
in with a trowel before you plant.
Now when you plant the tomato hold it
carefully in your hand.
Gently squeeze and release the pot.
Then what you can do with tomatoes is dig
quite a deep hole, because tomatoes
are really clever
and can actually root from the stem, as well
as the base.
Getting them nice and rooted into the stem
as well, means that you've got an extra space
then.
And hopefully, you will get up to six trusses
before you reach the top of the greenhouse.
Now, tomatoes need supporting when they're
growing as cordons.
That's growing them on one stem
and removing the side shoots as they grow.
So what we do is we get a piece of string,
tie it to a wire above,
and then we make sure that we bury the bottom
of that string.
You can put it underneath the plant itself.
And then as the plant grows, we just gently
wrap it around the string.
And that will keep it safe.
Now, we're going to give that plant a really
good soak.
And then we're going to make sure we water it
twice a day in the morning
and then in the evening.
And that way, we'll get the best
possible crops that we can from the plant.
Cucumbers can be planted in the same way
as tomatoes.
And it's a good idea to alternate where you
plant them in the greenhouse each year
if you're doing it in the border,
so you don't get disease problems
in the soil.
Opposite to the way
that we planted the tomatoes,
cucumbers actually like to be planted quite
shallowly, so that the top of their root ball
is protruding from the border or the growing
bag.
This is because you can get foot rots
at the base of the plant
if they're planted too deeply in the soil.
Climbing and dwarf beans are both tender
vegetables.
So you need to wait until the danger of frost
has passed in your local area.
Now in the south, this can be as early
as the beginning of May,
but in the north and colder gardens
it can be as late as the beginning of June.
So do what's right in your area.
When you're ready to plant the climbing
beans, make sure you've put up a really
sturdy support, when Which?
Gardening trialled different methods
of supporting runner beans.
We found that an a-frame arrangement
of bamboo canes,
where the canes are leaned in together
with a horizontal support at the top,
provided a really sturdy way of growing them
and worked the best.
Now when you growing dwarf beans,
plant them in the ground in blocks.
And then at the same time, sew some seeds
alongside.
And then you'll have an extra crop, three
or four weeks after the main one.
Onions, garlic, and leeks really don't like
the competition they get from weeds.
So it's important to keep weeding your crops
as you're going along.
Now I'd really recommend a small onion hoe
because it lets you get in there right
amongst the plants without damaging them.
Otherwise, the best alternative is a hand
fork or trowel, just to make sure you can get
in there amongst the plants
without damaging your crops.
These potatoes show the importance
of earthing up, regularly, to make sure all
the green tops are covered up as soon as they
come from the soil.
Unfortunately, with these ones,
they were left to get the green top
above the soil.
And then we've had a frosty night.
And you can see there's a bit of blackening
there on the leaves.
It's not all bad, though, as it hasn't killed
the plants.
And they'll soon recover.
So what I need to do
is to make sure I'm covering them up
with soil, to cover them over,
protecting those leaves from late frosts,
and also making sure that the tubers that
are developing underneath
don't turn green in the light.
It will actually encourage them to produce
even more potato tubers for me to harvest
later on.
Sweet corn is another tender veg that you can
plant this month, as long as the danger
of frost has passed in your area.
Now sweet corn is unusual,
but it doesn't rely on insects to pollinate
it, it relies on the wind.
So to make sure that it sets really good cobs
that are full all the way to the end,
you need to make sure that the plants are
close enough together that the wind can move
the pollen between them
and make sure they all get pollinated.
The best idea is to plant at least 12 plants
in a block of three
by four, about 35 centimetres
between each plant.
And then they'll have just the right amount
of space that they'll grow well and also
be able to pull in each other.
You can also try growing an extra crop
underneath the sweet corn,
as it grows so tall.
We'd recommend something like dwarf beans
or even a squash.
And then that can be growing at the base
of the sweet corn,
while the sweet corn towers above.
If you haven't got a greenhouse
there's no need to worry.
You can still grow tomatoes and cucumbers
outside.
The key thing is to choose
the right varieties.
Tomatoes, in particular, have been suffering
from a terrible disease called blight, which
turns the fruit brown and useless.
In the late summer, early autumn,
is when it tends to hit.
And it's just devastating for the plants.
Now what you can do
is find a resistant variety, such as mountain
magic or crimson crush.
I would really recommend you use one
of those, rather than a standard variety.
Now in terms of cucumbers,
the old outdoor varieties
tend to be a bit nasty and bristly, not
really very attractive, but in recent years,
there's been some great developments
of small baby size fruit varieties,
such as rocky and La Diva.
And they do brilliantly outside.
And produce perfect size fruit that your kids
will love in their lunch boxes.
It might seem ridiculously early to be
thinking about Christmas dinner,
but if you want to eat your own homegrown
Brussels sprouts and other brassicas,
now's the time to be planting them
in the plot.
Now the secret with all the brassicas
is to plant them really firmly,
so that if you were to pull one of the leaves
after you planted them,
the plant leaf would rip rather
than the whole plant coming up
out of the ground.
Now the best way to keep your plants
free of all those pests, that seems to just
love the brassicas--
the cabbage white butterflies.
Is to cover the plants with environomesh,
making sure it goes right
round all the plants so that none
of the pests can get in.
Later in the year, we'll use a wider mesh
that will help keep off the pigeons that
can absolutely strip the plants in winter,
just when you were looking for to eating them
yourself.
Slugs and snails can be a real problem
at this time of year.
Eating away at the leaves.
Devastating the plants.
They really love the warm, moist conditions
under fleece and fine mesh
that we're using to protect from other types
of pest.
So really keep an eye out for them.
Which?
Gardening did a trial where we found
that the organic slug pellets, which contain
ferric phosphate,
seem to do just a good as job
as the ones which contain
metaldehyde, which are much more
dangerous to wildlife, and even to pets.
So we'd would always advise that you use
those instead.
Now for a larger area, that you know slugs
are the problem in,
try and use one of the biological controls.
These can be applied any time after the soil
temperature is consistently above five
degrees centigrade.
You just add them to the watering can
and then water them onto the area.
You'll need to apply them several times
during the season.
So it is a bit of an investment of money.
And also, the other thing to bear in mind
is that they won't do anything
against the snails.
So if snails are a real problem in your area,
it's again using the organic pellets
and making sure you're looking out for them
because snails tend to congregate in areas
such as around raised beds or even
in old flower pots
that you've left lying around.
Quick growing catch crops such as lettuce,
and beetroot, and carrot can be sewn
throughout the season
to give quick crops just where you need them.
Now a good place to plant them
is amongst the long, slow growing plants,
such as these Brussels sprouts, where they'll
quickly develop at the base
without affecting the Brussels sprouts
and give you more crops in the area.
You can either sew them direct,
alternatively, you can keep sewing, maybe six
plants at a time, in modular trays
in the greenhouse, as that's a really useful
way of always having young plants that can be
used to fill any gaps in the plot that
appear.
Once the danger of frost
has passed in your area, you can plant out
both courgettes and squash.
Now the secret with these, we've found,
is to try and grow them through a permeable
mulch, which is a fabric you can get just
from the golden centre or even online.
It'll help to keep the soil that bit warmer,
suppress the weeds,
and also help to retain a bit of moisture,
because these are really plants that like it
warm and also take a lot of moisture
to get them growing really well.
When they plant,
you can cut an x in the black permeable
mulch.
And then peel back the flaps.
And plant your plant through.
Once the plant is in the ground, the mulch
can then be replaced around it so it's right
up to the base of the plant.
Broad beans have started to flower well now.
And it's not going to be that much longer
before we'll would be enjoying
the first delicious pods of them.
Now, unfortunately, a few pests
are after them at this time of year.
You can see the damage here
that's very characteristic of pea and bean
weevil.
It takes the little notches out of the side
of the leaves, like you can see there.
That might look worrying,
but actually, fortunately, this one doesn't
really do much harm to your crops,
so nothing really to worry about there.
However, you must keep an eye out
for black fly, which will be starting
to arrive about now.
If you leave these, they'll quickly spread
through the whole of the plant and absolutely
devastate the crop.
The best idea is as soon as you see
any little colony starting to appear here
in the chute of the plant,
is just to snap out that shoot tip
and throw it away,
because you'll be getting
rid of black fly at the same time.
Alternatively, you can consider spraying,
but if you manage to keep your plants pretty
clean, you should get a really good crop.
The strawberries have started flowering now.
And it won't be long before we start to enjoy
the first wonderful fruits.
Now in preparation for this,
we want to keep the plants well watered
because they're going to need a lot of water
to make nice juicy berries.
Try and water at the base of the plants,
as this will help to avoid getting
fungal problems in there.
Then, with a bit of straw,
just pack it in around the plants,
as this will help to keep the fruit
off the ground and to keep it dry.
Again, avoiding fungal problems.
Then the last thing to do
is just to cover over your plants with a bird
proof net.
And then hopefully, all the fruit will be
for you and none for the birds.
Look on which.co.uk, for lots
of other great tips about how to grow
your vegetables and our best buy varieties.
Now back at the plot,
make sure you keep everything watered,
when we're having a dry spell.
And also, keep hoeing, so the weeds don't
take over.
Then we'll be back next month with lots
of tips for your vegetable garden in June.