Harvest
Depending where you are and what you planted, you may have some salad crops ready. Hardy lettuce and spring onions, fast growing radish may well be available. If you tried potatoes undercover, you may well be getting the odd meal from these. Winter cauliflowers, spring cabbage, sprouting broccoli and kale should be ready now. The luxury crop asparagus may be starting for you as well this month. Unbeatable!
Sowing, Planting and Cultivating

Cultivation
There are two main cultivation jobs you need to keep on top of in May. First, the weeds are growing. Hoeing them off as small seedlings will make the job far easier than waiting for them to grow and send their roots down. Hoeing is best done on a dry day so that the weeds do not have a chance to recover. Don’t forget to sharpen your hoe before you start and frequently as you use it.The other cultivation job outdoors is to thin out. We sow our carrots and parsnips and it seems a shame to remove seedlings we were so happy to see appear but it needs to be done.

Sowing
There is a lot to sow this month and with many crops you can sow one set and then a few weeks later re-sow to give you a succession of fresh vegetables at the peak of perfection. If it is a dry May, it is a good idea to soak your seed drill before sowing and then just water with a fine rose after.

• French Beans
• Runner Beans
• Beetroot
• Broccoli and Calabrese
• Cabbage and Cauliflowers
• Chicory
• Kale
• Kohlrabi
• Peas
• Turnips and Swedes
• Your salad crops should be sown in succession
• Lettuce and Leaves such as Rocket
• Radishes
• Spring Onions

Sowing under cover

• Sweetcorn
• Courgette
• Marrow
• Pumpkin

These really don’t like starting in the cold and you only grow a relatively few plants so starting off in pots is well worth the investment.Sweetcorn does not like its roots being disturbed so some people pack old toilet roll inners with compost and sow in there, planting out the whole roll when ready. Because you are in a cardboard pot, they can dry out very easily and you need to ensure they are planted with the whole roll below ground level or the collar will encourage drying out and restrict growth. It is easier to use something like root trainers although an ordinary three inch pot will suffice if care is taken at planting time.

Planting Out
If your plants are large enough, you can plant out now:

• Brussels sprouts
• Summer cabbages
• Celery
• Celeriac
• Leeks.

With leeks a good rule of thumb is to get the seedling about as thick as a pencil. Dib a hole about six inches deep using something like a spade handle and drop the seedling in. Water well and allow the soil to fall back in naturally. The old method of trimming the roots and top before transplanting leeks is not actually a good thing and has been shown to be detrimental. It’s a big enough shock to the plant being taken out of its seedbed!

In the greenhouse
The following are ready for their final home, that may be the border, a growbag or a large pot.

• Aubergine
• Peppers (Chilli and Sweet)
• Cucumber
• Tomatoes

Fruit
It’s mainly a matter of ensuring that you get the crops rather than the birds. A fruit cage is a big investment but very effective, otherwise netting to keep the birds away.
Strawberries planted this year will perform better in subsequent years if you remove the flowers so they don’t set fruit in the first year but concentrate on building their strength for next.

General Tasks
As I said above, keep hoeing off the weeds but perennial weeds like dandelion and dock will need their roots removing to prevent re-growth. Bindweed can be a nightmare to stop, any small piece of root will grow. It’s by far the easiest to use a spray of glyphosate based weedkiller, which will go to the roots and kill the plant. Another weed that re-appears at this time is Horsetail (Equisetum Arvense). You will need repeated applications of glyphosate weedkiller for this which will keep the plot out of action for a while as it does its work. Organic growers will just need to keep hoeing and removing roots. This will eventually defeat the weed but it’s a long, hard job. On the subject of weedkillers, if you have used a product such as ‘Weed and Feed’ on your lawn, the mowings may well be toxic to your crops. Often you need to compost

Gardener’s Pests
Don’t forget the slugs are about, if you find an entire row of seedlings have vanished overnight you can bet it was slugs. With your carrots, covering with a fleece and ensuring the edges are buried will stop the carrot root fly from gaining entry to lay eggs by your carrots. The eggs hatch in larvae that burrow into the carrot root, killing the plant or at least spoiling the crop.

General Gardening Tip
If you have any horticultural fleece, you can peg that onto the ground a week or so before you plant. The small rise in temperature of the soil can make a big difference

Sowing, Planting and Cultivating
There’s quite a list to sow and plant outside, especially if March has not been suitable. Do remember the weeds are springing into action, so keep the hoe going. Don’t forget, a sharp hoe is the best friend a gardener can have. Just slide it back and forth slightly below the surface of the soil and you’ll stop the weed seedlings in their tracks. Hoeing is also good in the event of drought as the disturbed soil surface stops the water being sucked to the surface by capillary action and evaporating in dry winds.

Things to Sow

• Beetroot
• Peas
• Broad Beans
• Broccoli
• Brussels Sprouts
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Kale
• Chard
• Kohl Rabi
• Leeks
• Spinach
• Beet spinach
• Rocket
• Lettuce
• Radish

With your carrots, covering with a fleece and ensuring the edges are buried will stop the carrot root fly from gaining entry to lay eggs by your carrots. The eggs hatch in larvae that burrow into the carrot root, killing the plant or at least ruining the crop.

Plant Outdoors

• Globe and Jerusalem Artichokes
• Onion & Shallot Sets
• Asparagus.

Easter is the traditional potato planting time. If you have a comfrey bed and it has sprung back, the first cut laid in the trench under the potatoes will provide nutrition to get them off to a good start. On the subject of comfrey, if you make a comfrey tea it will help you to a great crop to use it on your potatoes. Many novice growers wonder why they have small crops of potatoes and most often this is just down to lack of food for this hungry crop.

Sow in the greenhouse

• Aubergine
• Celery
• Outdoor Cucumbers
• Tomatoes (if you’ve not already done so)

A good tip in a windowsill is to stick some silver cooking foil onto cardboard and place on the inside to reflect light back onto the seedlings. This will help prevent them being drawn.

Sow Outdoors Under Cloche

• French beans
• Lettuce
• Sweetcorn

Alternative Method for Sweetcorn
I like to pre-chit my sweetcorn, I lay the seeds on a layer of damp kitchen paper and then place a layer of paper over in an airtight box. An old ice-cream carton or a Tupperware type box is ideal. Check carefully each day and as soon as the small white sprout appears, plant the seed about half to an inch deep in a 3″ pot of general purpose compost in the greenhouse.

When the shoots appear about an inch high, plant out under cloche being careful not to disturb the root (sweetcorn hates root disturbance) under a cloche. Sweetcorn needs a lot of nitrogen and a teaspoon of dried blood per plant or water with urea (this is a chemical, I do not mean pee on them!) Many of the crops you can sow directly will also benefit from cloching, especially as you move northwards or started off in modules in a cool greenhouse or cold frame and then planted out later.

Fruit

Strawberries can be planted out now, it’s best to remove flowers in the first year as you conserve strength for growth and gain larger crops in subsequent years. An easy way to gain strawberry plants is to plant the runners into pots and when rooted cut the runner. The plants don’t last forever so you need to rotate them ever three to five years. Hand pollinate peaches and nectarines. Tickle the flowers with a small paint brush to spread the pollen. Cover if a cold spell threatens. A good layer of compost around the base of fruit trees will ensure they have the nutrition to provide another good crop for you.

Gardener’s Pests
I’ve mentioned the carrot root fly but the gardener’s worst enemy is awakening. The evil slugs and snails are coming out to eat entire rows of succulent young seedlings overnight so take action now.

Harvest

Any leeks left standing should come up now – you can freeze them for use in soups and stews. Parsnips too should come up in early March before they try and re-grow. You may have spinach beet and chards available, the last of the late Brussels sprouts, winter cauliflowers, kale, swedes, salsify and scorzonera. Don’t forget to keep checking the purple sprouting!

General Jobs in the Garden

Have a good tidy up and finish those odd construction jobs because you are going to be busier still later in the year. If you have any horticultural fleece, you can peg that onto the ground a week or so before you plant. The small rise in temperature of the soil can make a big difference Sowing, Planting and Cultivating If the weather permits you can plant your onion and shallot sets. March is usually the right time to establish an asparagus bed if you are starting from crowns. Mid March should let you start planting those early potatoes you’ve had chitting and talking of root crops, you can plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers now.

Things to Sow

Beetroot Broad

Beans Early Peas (but they may do best started in a gutter in the greenhouse then slipped into a trench)

Brussels sprouts – early varieties like Peer Gynt will be ready in September

Kohl Rabi

Leeks

Lettuce

Radish

Parsnips

Spinach Beet

Early Turnips Sow in Heat Windowsill or a propagator in the greenhouse will come into use now to start off your tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and cucumbers.

Under Cloche

Summer cabbages and early cauliflowers, early carrots will get away best under a cloche. If you set your cloche up a week or two beforehand, it will warm up the soil so you will get even better results. Many of the crops you can sow directly will also benefit from cloching, especially as you move northwards or started off in modules in a cool greenhouse or coldframe and then planted out later.

Fruit Planting & Pruning There is still time to finish planting bare rooted fruit trees and bushes, especially raspberries and other cane fruits. Early this month you can still prune apple and pear trees while they are still dormant. It’s also time to prune gooseberries and currants. With currants shorten the sideshoots to just one bud and remove old stems from the centre of the bushes. They’ll benefit from some compost spread around the base as well

Harvest
Leeks may well be standing ready but if a long freeze seems likely you can dig some up and heel them in to dug ground for easy access – unless we have deep snow! Parsnips, turnips and Swedes in the ground can come up when you are ready, cover with fleece or straw to stop them freezing solid into the ground. The cabbage family should be providing some sustenance with early purple sprouting, kale and Brussels sprouts being available. Beet leaves (perpetual spinach) and chards will be available. Other crops you may have: salsify, scorzonera, chicory, endive, celeriac, celery and Jerusalem artichokes.

General Jobs in the Garden
If you have finished all the major tasks, such as digging over, creating leaf mould heaps etc you will not have a lot to do in February but if like most of us you are scrambling to keep up, this is your last chance before spring. Double check the greenhouse, ensure the glass is firmly secured and replace any cracked panes etc. If you’ve not managed to give it a thorough clean, now is the time before it is pressed into service.

Check last year’s potato bed for any volunteers (left over small potatoes) and remove them to avoid passing on disease problems and blight. You’re going to be using your pots and seed trays next, so this is a good opportunity to wash out and sterilise them so you seedlings will get off to the best possible start. This year’s potato bed will benefit from a good application of compost or rotted manure that can be forked in or rotovated in to get them away. You can cover soil with dark plastic sheeting, fleece or cloches to warm it up for a couple of weeks before you start to sow and plant.

Sowing, Planting and Cultivating
As stated above, what you sow outdoors will depend on local conditions. If suitable you can sow your broad beans in February along with early peas such as Feltham First and Meteor for a May / June harvest. Conventional advice is to sow parsnips now but I believe their reputation for poor germination is due to being placed in cold wet soil and I have had much better germination by sowing in March.
Jerusalem artichokes and shallots can be planted now, although shallots will benefit from covering with a cloche.

Under Cover
If you have a greenhouse, you can get an early crop of lettuce, rocket and radish away in there. You can utilise cloches outdoors but success will be more dependent on the weather.

Time to sow your summer cabbages such as Greyhound and Primo, as well as turnips and spinach. Onions from seed should be started now. They need about 15 degrees to get them going so you may be best using the windowsill in a cool room to start them off.
With a heated propagator or using windowsills you can start off aubergine and peppers. Once again, I have found better results by waiting until March, which I put down to the length of the day, but many people feel this is the right time.

Chitting Potatoes
There has been talk about whether it is necessary to chit potatoes but it is too early to plant them and if left in their bags, seed potatoes will produce long sprouts that will break off at planting time anyway. Chitting is simply placing the potatoes in a frost free place with indirect light and will produce short strong shoots, getting them away to a faster start. You can use egg cartons or seed trays to keep them in. Don’t forget to label them so you don’t get confused as to variety come planting time.

I read that spraying with seaweed solution at fortnightly intervals while chitting will improve the crop but I didn’t notice any benefit myself. With main crop potatoes, I reduce the number of shoots to three, or four on larger seed potatoes, so that they produce larger potatoes rather than masses of smaller ones.

Fruit Planting & Pruning
There is still time to finish planting fruit trees and bushes, especially raspberries and other cane fruits. Early this month you can prune apple and pear trees while they are still dormant. It’s also time to prune gooseberries and currants. With currants shorten the sideshoots to just one bud and remove old stems from the centre of the bushes. If you are in a sheltered area and grow early flowering fruit trees like nectarines, peaches and apricots, protect the flowers with horticultural fleece against frost. You can also use old net curtains for this job.

Forcing Rhubarb
Rhubarb can be forced for an early crop of the sweetest stalks. Just cover a crown or two with buckets or even an upturned large pot and insulate the outside with straw or compost for added heat. The stalks will grow in the dark. The drawback is that this takes a lot out of the crown and it won’t recover for a couple of years. The professional growers in the famous Rhubarb Triangle dig up their crowns and take them into huge dark warm sheds to produce forced rhubarb. Once the season ends these exhausted crowns are discarded as it will take them longer to recover than to grow new crowns.

Harvest
Leeks may well be standing ready but if a long freeze seems likely you can dig some up and heel them in to dug ground for easy access, unless we have deep snow! Parsnips and Swedes in the ground can come up when you are ready, cover with fleece or straw to stop them freezing solid into the ground. The cabbage family should be providing some sustenance and beet leaves (perpetual spinach) and chards will be available. On a sunny day it is worth emptying your potato sacks and check for any that are starting to rot before it spreads.

General Jobs in the Garden
In an ideal world you will have finished digging over, creating leaf mould heaps etc as suggested for December. If like me you are always behind, try to catch up! Digging over now if we have a fine day will also have the benefit of exposing pests in the soil which will be eaten by friendly birds such as the robin. Keep the plot tidy and check tree stakes remain firm, greenhouses are secure etc. against winter storms.

As you harvest brassica’s, dig up the stems and turn the ground over. Because the compost heap will be cold and slow at this time of year, you can always bury these in the bottom of a trench along with some kitchen waste to prepare for the runner beans later in the year.

Sowing, Planting and Cultivating
January is not the month for outdoor planting although you may be able to make use of your greenhouse, especially if you can keep the house frost free. Unless you have specialist equipment it’s always a gamble in deep winter, for who knows how cold it may get?

Fruit
Resist the temptation to try out new secateurs on stone fruits like cherry and damson, although you can still prune apples and pears etc. Remove any mummified fruits hanging or on the ground under the trees as these will be harbouring pests.

There is no such thing as an absolute set date for a job in gardening, as temperatures vary according to where you are in the country.

One thing most gardeners agree with is that weeds are annoying at best and downright nasty at worst. So what are the gardener’s most hated weeds?

Annual bluegrass is at the bottom of the top ten list but it’s still a tough nut to crack. It rears its ugly head in the fall and then really grows like a weed (no pun intended) in the spring. This stuff really crowds out your grass. You’re going to need pre-emergent to keep this from taking over your lawn come springtime.

Coming in at number 9 is wild onion. This weed grows from bulbs that have an onion like odour. It usually grows in clumps and has round hollow leaves. Best way to get rid of this thing that grows in the spring is to hand dig it out to get to the bulbs.

Coming in at number 8 is crabgrass. This grass grows very fast and in very large clumps. It pops up in the spring and continues to grow all through the summer. You’ll need a pre-emergent for this in the spring and then a product made for crabgrass control in the summer.

In the number 7 position is Ragweed. This is actually part of the sunflower family and can really make you sneeze plenty. This pretty much grows everywhere, anytime. Best to hand pull this one before it flowers and starts to seed.

At number 6 is spotted spurge. This grows very low and has tiny leaves. In the summertime it produces small pink flowers and will spread all over your lawn. It is best to hand dig this with a trowel and use weed killer.

Coming in at number 5 is purslane. This thing can take over a flower bed or lawn in no time flat. It grows low and has yellow flowers. Hand dig this one with a trowel and use broadleaf weed killer to keep it under control.

At number 4 we have poison ivy. This one is easy to spot by its three leaflets. It starts out red and turns green as it matures. Poison ivy is just about everywhere. Use something made for poison ivy. Don’t hand pull.

In the number 3 spot is clover. This comes in red and white and some people actually plant it on purpose. What it does is actually crowd out your grass and it attracts bees. A granular weed killer is best to get rid of clover.

One spot from the top is plantain. Plantain grows close to the ground and its thick oval shaped leaves can crowd out your grass in a hurry. You can hand pick this one but make sure you get it by the roots. A broadleaf weed killer will usually take care of this one.

And finally, coming in at number 1 is dandelion. This is a perennial weed that is found just about everywhere. And while they may have been fun to pick as children they are no fun for gardeners. These things can literally overrun your garden or lawn in no time flat. Hand picking these is useless because the roots are so deep. Best way to get rid of these is with spot treating and a broadleaf weed killer.

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The carrots should come up for storage now if they haven’t already, store either in peat or sand or even a traditional clamp. Lift celery, parsnips and Swedes although parsnips and Swedes are very hardy and may be left if the ground is not needed. You can always cover them with fleece or straw to help stop the ground freezing them in.

Jerusalem artichokes will be available and you can start on Salsify and Scorzonera. Salsify is often called the ‘vegetable oyster’ and properly cooked is a wonderful vegetable. It’s worth checking any vegetables you have in store and removing anything that has started to rot before it spreads. Potatoes especially need to be checked and watch out for slugs that have emerged from a potato to go and damage another one. Other crops you may have for harvest: Perpetual spinach, celeriac, chicory (non-forcing and forcing varieties), endive, kale, kohl rabi, lettuce, winter radish, spinach, turnips.

General Jobs in the Garden
Digging can continue, when weather allows. Particularly with clay soils, digging when the soil is wet and sticky can do more harm than good. It’s also more hard work.As with October & November, as ground becomes vacant, you can dig it over and spread manure over the surface. Leave the soil roughly dug in large clumps and the worms will break these up as they get the manure. The freezing and thawing of water in the soil will cause the soil to break up finely so becoming easier to handle in the spring.

Winter is a good time to undertake double digging, incorporating manure into the bottom of the trench and deepening your topsoil. Stake any young trees and tall brassica’s to prevent wind rock damaging them by loosening the soil around their roots. Ensure compost bins are covered to prevent excess rain leaching the nutrients and to keep some of the heat of decomposition in.

Soil analyses. Autumn is a good time to check soil pH (potential hydrogen). This is measured on a scale of 1 to 14 with 7 being regarded as neutral, although in gardening terms 6.5 will support most plants. Below 7 is acid and above alkaline. If you want the best out of your garden send soil samples away for professional analysis for both pH and nutrient content or utilise a kit or meter readily available from garden centres and DIY stores. Try and keep things tidy to avoid providing winter homes for pests waiting for the spring.

Take hardwood cuttings of soft fruit. Gooseberries, red, white and black currants, worcesterberries, jostaberries and vines can all be propagated by cuttings inserted in the open ground now. Choose sturdy well ripened shoots of this year’s growth cutting them just below a bud and trimming to just above a bud. For black currants take them about 8-10 inches (200-250 mm) long, 12-15 inches (300-380 mm) for the other fruits. Insert them into the soil to about half their length. It is customary to grow all except blackcurrants on a short stem – so remove the buds from the lower part of the cutting. All the buds should be left on blackcurrant cuttings.

Leaf fall should be well underway and to recap on October & November’s advice: The leaves will start to fall very shortly and these are a valuable resource. Prepare for them by building a leaf mould cage. Very simple to do, you just drive four stakes into the ground and staple chicken netting around to make the cage. Pile in the leaves and leave them alone for a year. You will find the pile reduces by two thirds at least, so keep filling the bin as more leaves fall. If you have one those marvellous garden vacuum mulchers that suck up leaves and chop them, you will find the leaves rot down much more quickly. Watch out for council sweepers, they may just drop you a load of leaves when they call to collect a few veggies off you.

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