Sowing vegetables in May

KevinH

Hi I'm currently setting up my first vegetable garden.
I realise I'm running late but i'm hand-rotovating the soil and have to put up a fence to keep the dog out ! and with overtime in work, etc everything's taking longer than I thought.

I'm hoping to pick your brains about vegetables that can be sown in mid-to-late May ?
I'd like to set up a four-vegetable rotation for years to come.

Thanks.

Belfast

Allotment & Vegetable Gardening in May
http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden_month/garden-may.php

Month by Month on The Plot
http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden_month.php

Dr Galen

where are you living?

whats the weather conditions like? I know up here we've had a few sharp frosts in the last few weeks so if I had gone ahead and planted as planned, I'd be suffering a little right now. Your not really that far behind.

what kind of things where you thinking of planting?

Aeneas

KevinH wrote: »

Hi I'm currently setting up my first vegetable garden.
I realise I'm running late but i'm hand-rotovating the soil and have to put up a fence to keep the dog out ! and with overtime in work, etc everything's taking longer than I thought.

I'm hoping to pick your brains about vegetables that can be sown in mid-to-late May ?
I'd like to set up a four-vegetable rotation for years to come.

Thanks.

May is a good time to sow outdoor vegetables. The soil has warmed up, the risk of frost is largely past, daylight is long. Indoor (polytunnel, greenhouse) vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, aubergines would need ot have been sown back in Feb/Mar although you can get plants in the Garden Centre. For outdoors there is plenty that can go in now and over the rest of the summer:
Beans and Peas: runner, French, borlotti, broad beans, peas - all should be sown this month.
Root Crops: carrots, beetroot, fennel, radish, parsnips, swedes, white turnips - in succession over the next few months
Brassicas: summer cabbage, winter cabbage, kale, broccoli, kohl rabi, cauliflower (difficult), pak choi - this month and next
Leafy: lettuce, rocket, spinach (ordinary and perpetual), Swiss chard - in succession over the next few months
Tender: courgettes, pumpkins, outdoor cucumber - this month. Sow indoors now and plant out in June.
Alliums: too late for maincrop onions and shallots, but fine for spring onions.
Many of these can be grown in succession ie. sow a number of varieties now and then sow again every few weeks to get a succession of crops over the summer.
If this is your first year I wouldn't worry too much about rotation. The main thing now is to get your seeds into the ground or in pots, and your plot into production. But if you note where you planted things this year you can, if you wish, avoid the same vegetable in the same spot next year. But it is not a big problem. You can do your four year rotation plan over the coming winter and implement it in years to come.
If you don't think your plot will be ready until the middle of the month you can sow most of the vegetables above now in pots of compost and after they have germinated and grown on a bit you can plant them out at the end of the month. Exceptions are carrots, parsnips, radish and spring onions which need to go directly into the ground.