Plant edible crops in May
Garden Tasks for a Productive May: A Step-by-Step Guide
As the spring season blooms, it's time to focus on your garden tasks to ensure a bountiful harvest throughout the summer. Here's a prioritized list of activities based on plant needs and gardening best practices.
1. Plant Tomatoes
Plant your tomatoes soon after the last spring frost, ideally when the seedlings are 4 to 6 weeks old. Tomatoes thrive in warm soil and need time to establish before summer fruiting. Planting them promptly will maximize your growing season.
2. Succession Sow Salad Leaves
To maintain a continuous harvest, sow salad leaves every 1-3 weeks. May is an excellent time to start or continue succession sowing, as leafy greens establish quickly in cooler soil before temperatures rise. This practice will ensure a steady supply of fresh greens throughout the season.
3. Make Comfrey Feed
Prepare your comfrey feed, a nutritious liquid fertilizer, for regular application during the growing season. To make the concentrate, chop up or bruise comfrey leaves and stuff them into a 3-liter bottle with the bottom cut off, creating a funnel. The process can be smelly, so be prepared. After a week or two, dark liquid will drip from the bottom of the bottle, which can be added to watering cans at a rate of 10ml per liter to feed plants.
4. Straw and Net Strawberries
After planting and ensuring flowers or developing fruits are present, cover your strawberry beds with straw and netting. Straw conserves moisture and suppresses weeds, while netting protects the crop from birds. Both measures should be applied just before fruiting begins for maximum protection and soil maintenance.
In addition to these tasks, remember to tidy your strawberry bed by removing weeds, old leaves, and evicting slugs while aerating the soil. Also, consider using the 'Bocking 14' strain of comfrey for making your liquid feed.
Hearting lettuce takes about 10 weeks to mature, but loose leaf lettuce, greek cress, and annual spinach can be harvested in as little as six weeks from summer sowings. To save space, sow salad leaves thinly in short rows in the gaps between other crops.
By following this sequence, you'll balance crop planting times, ongoing feeding needs, and protective measures to optimize growth and harvest continuity in your garden. Happy gardening!
In the midst of your garden tasks, consider succession sowing salad leaves and hearty lettuce for a continuous supply of fresh greens in your lifestyle during the summer. Additionally, make and apply comfrey feed to your home-and-garden for an organic and nutritious fertilizer, boosting the growth and productivity of your plants.
