May in your school garden
This is an exiting time in the garden, with some crops beginning to mature, and lots of young plants coming along. Unfortunately it can also be the time when pests and other problems start to appear. For help to identify and deal with common veg problems click on Resources on the left hand menu, then select Growing Food and scroll down to the vegetable you are interested in – all those mentioned in Jobs for the month are covered. If you need more information, then use the link on the right hand side to RHS Fruit and Vegetable Growing Advice, or try RHS Grow your own veg where, as well as loads of advice, you can find links to blogs and videos about veg growing.
Jobs this month
• Sow more lettuce and radish outdoors, so you can carry on cropping after your first sowings have been harvested.
• Sow French beans and pumpkins. In milder areas these can go straight in the ground but in most places it is safer to start them in pots and keep them indoors for a few weeks.
• Check rows of seedlings growing outdoors and thin them out if necessary. Remove any weeds at the same time.
• Plant out seedlings started off indoors once they are large enough.
• Protect outdoor sowings of French beans and pumpkins with fleece or cloches if frost threatens.
• Continue to earth up new potatoes.
• If the weather is very dry, water any newly planted seedlings, lettuce and radish
• Harvest the first spring vegetables: lettuce, overwintered peas and radish.
• Plant up window boxes, hanging baskets and patio pots with colourful displays of flowers for the summer. Although it’s traditional to mix lots of plants together, often a single subject can have the most impact.
• Plant out dahlia tubers and summer-flowering bulbs such as lilies and gladioli.