The middle of May already! And what a lovely month so far. I have never seen so much blossom on my apple trees and most things seem to be growing well. We may have had to water gardens more than we want to, but it’s good to cherish each dry, sunny day – this may be our summer, so enjoy it while you can!
You can lessen the amount of watering that you need to do, by using mulch to help reduce evaporation from the soil. Even in a raised bed, this will help keep soil damp. Grass clippings are often the easiest available mulch material, but there are many others such as cardboard, compost, bark chips, coir chips, straw, or sheet mulch material. Always make sure the ground is wetted before you put a mulch down.
And if we have some rain between writing this and the paper arriving into your hands – then cherish any drenching that gives a good wetting to the soil.
First strawberries
Fruit is starting to ripen, and some berries may be ready to pick. The more sun that the fruit is exposed to, the sweeter it gets – so don’t be tempted to pick until berries are fully ripe.
Each plant will have a mix of green and ripening fruits. This should give you a spread of harvest over the next few weeks. Don’t ease off on care for your plants at this stage. They still need water and ideally you should use a liquid feed every 7-10 days to give a nutrient boost. This is particularly important where plants are swelling a lot of fruits.
Trim off any discoloured leaves and allow plenty of air to circulate around plants. This helps reduce problems with mould. Raising fruiting clusters up off the ground can reduce problems with slugs: I use short twiggy sticks for this purpose, not a fool proof slug solution, but, together with a few organic slug pellets, it can keep spoiled fruit to a minimum.
Birds will eat the berries if they can. Use netting raised up over the plants so birds can’t just land on top and peck through the mesh. Secure the lower edges against the ground – birds can get caught in the mesh as they try to push underneath.
And if that’s not enough, rodents have a keen interest in strawberries too. If rats and mice are a problem, deal with them swiftly or you may lose a share of your fruit.
Basil will be a perfect herb to pair with your meals all summer.
Plant basil
This is the most exquisite summer herb. It needs heat, a free draining soil and a bit of shelter to grow at its best. Plants do well in a polytunnel, greenhouse or conservatory. They can also do well for a while on a sunny window ledge.
You can grow plants from seed, but I prefer to take a short cut and buy a couple of pots of young plants from the grocery section of the supermarket. Choose ones that are green and fresh looking and ones that don’t have long leggy stems.
There will be a lot of plants in each pot. Tip the whole lot out of the pot and soak the root ball in water for a few minutes – it will then be easy to split into six to eight sections. Each section will have two or three plants. Pot these into pots of good compost that is just damp. Keep the pots out of direct sun until plants are established. They are ready to plant out in larger pots, or greenhouse border soil, in a week or two, as soon as they have grown some new roots.
Purple flowering Alliums.
Alliums
This grouping includes onions, garlic, leeks and chives. It also includes the wonderful, long stemmed flowering orbs, that we grow from bulbs in containers and flower borders.
Onions should be growing well from spring planted sets. Don’t let the soil dry out and keep weeds down if you want to get the best from this shallow rooting crop. Garlic should have thick stems, and be starting to swell bulbs, from autumn planted cloves. Keep an eye out for any failing plants and remove them before the problem spreads.
Leek plants may seem small at this point. Make sure they have enough room to grow either in a seed bed or in a container. They will be ready to plant out when around 20cm tall.
Chives are flowering early after all the sun – they look pretty and if you cut down the stems when they have finished flowering, more usable chives will grow.
Still time to sow
French beans, Runner beans, salad leaves, beetroot, kale, Swiss chard, spinach, cauliflower, cabbages, pumpkins and sweetcorn. Mangetout peas sown now can give an autumn crop.
Any small plants in pots should go into the ground as soon as they can.
