Simple, tasty, colourful veg for summer months
The Gardening PR digs deep into her vast gardening experience to offer regular green-fingered guidance
May is the month when everything gets busy in the garden and even the most relaxed gardeners become inspired.
Plant growth is steaming ahead with seeds germinating, plants and shrubs bursting into flower and weeds
popping up.
It’s a time to think about introducing edible plants to your garden and there are easy ways to enjoy fullflavoured crops, even when space is tight.
For novice gardeners, focus on herbs. It doesn’t take long to grow herbs from seed, and if you sow now, you will enjoy them all summer. Parsley, coriander and dill can be sown direct in the soil this month, to harvest from
July onwards. Basil is best sown indoors in pots, but you will be able to take your pick of leaves from July.
If you have a semi-shaded spot in your garden, try growing cut-and-come-again salad leaves. Not only delicious, they will save you buying bags of salad – so cutting down on plastic packaging.
If you grow them in a container pick one that is approximately 30cm wide or larger. Try mizuna looseleaved lettuce, rocket or endive. You can sow pak choi, Swiss chard and beetroot to harvest colourful tasty leaves. Once salad leaves are 10cm tall – in about three to four weeks – snip them off with scissors to just above ground level and they will resprout for a second or third time. If you give liquid plant food after each harvest they will re-grow rapidly.
Dwarf French beans keep on giving. As long as you pick them as soon as they are ready they keep on cropping all summer. They need good fertile soil, so dig in some compost, and climbing varieties need canes for support.
Young plants can be planted out end of May or sow seeds now directly where you want them to grow, at 20cm intervals. Water the soil when it gets dry and if you sow a second batch next month you can alternate picking beans between the
two all summer.
If you’re new to growing veg, beetroot is a good, easyto-grow option. The seeds don’t need much encouragement to germinate, requiring little maintenance once established. Being a root crop, beetroot does best if the soil is free of large stones.
The same is true of carrots. If you want carrots with plenty of flavour, it’s definitely worth growing your own. Both beetroot and carrot seeds tend to germinate within a couple of weeks and you should be harvesting fresh beetroot in 8-10 weeks and carrots in 14-16 weeks.
For a touch of colour try edible flowers that can be grown from seed and are easy to sow. Nasturtiums seeds are pushed straight into soil in spring or summer and flowers taste a touch peppery. Pot Marigolds are also sown at this time of year and the orange flowers have a zingy citrus flavour.
The RHS says as bulbs fade and herbaceous borders grow in leaps and bounds, it is clear summer is approaching. Sowing and planting out bedding can begin, and take softwood cuttings. It’s time for the lawn mowing regime.
Top three jobs this month – watch for late frosts and protect tender plants, earth up potatoes and plant any you might still have and plant out summer bedding at the end of the month (except in cold areas).