What I’m Sowing and Growing in May
For an overview of everything that I’m sowing for the whole year, please take a look at my month-by-month sowing guide.
April has had it’s ups and downs, that’s for sure! Set aside Covid 19 and the associated lockdown, the biggest challenge has been blazing hot sun during the day and freezing temperatures at night. We even had -4.3c under fleece in a low tunnel one night and that was the early dwarf beans gone. Fortunately the climbing beans in the polytunnel were fine in their bubble wrap tents. On a positive note we’ve been breaking harvest records every week and incredibly – mid Hungry Gap – we did our biggest ever daily harvest!
We are generally running two weeks ahead of last year for most of the crops and because we are actually growing tomatoes and cucumbers to maturity in the conservatory, we are months ahead there. I was particularly pleased to harvest the first of the new potatoes last week.
The Kitchen garden is now fully planted and the front garden is being transitioned to edibles too. May see’s a huge transition on the plots, mine is mostly planted for summer, but we will soon be planting the squash and winter brassicas on Jennie’s plot and the polytunnel enjoys a complete turn-over.
I do a monthly video tour of the whole plot which you can find below.
Our garden is now in full production too
So finally we get to May’s sowing and growing videos, first up growing:
May sowing and growing video – Part 1
Next the sowing, which is part 2, which also includes an update on my free planning tools.
What I’m Sowing and Growing in May – Part 2
If you’re interested in the databases that I used to manage the allotments I also have a video and associated blog post about them. The blog post has all of the details on how to get your own copy of the database (with or without my data) to customise as you wish.
I also have a fancy new database for tracking all of my seed packets.
Here’s a complete read-only view of the varieties database with all of my data.
Here’s what I sowed in April:
Here’s what I’m planning to sow in May:
For completeness here’s a view of my sowing database for last year with all the details!
Here’s a complete list of the varieties that I’m planning to sow in 2020
Watch out for the next video showing what I’m sowing in June, here’s a hint, successions!
Hi Steve,
I would like to say a big thank you for such a great website, i have followed you on YT for a while and find your content very helpful, unlike you i just have a small garden which i share with a wife and two large German shepherds so i have to fight to keep my space free from pest already mentioned; i only grow a few of each thing at a time but try to have something always ready for when one thing ends.
Every thing i grow is in large pots but i get great enjoyment out of eating fresh picked stuff straight from the garden, like yourself i have some fruit trees apple pear and cheery and i am going to try and get some fruit bushes; i watched your video on those you had in your garden and found the watering information very helpful because i never knew if i had given them enough water or not.
Anyway i would like to say thank you once again and i only wish i had found someone like yourself when i was younger and fitter; at 70 now i am just finding a new interesting and rewarding hobby best wishes.
Mike
Thanks for the lovely feedback Mike! Do you watch Ronald Shaw’s youtube, he’s a container gardener too and does a great job : all the best – Steve