Kitchen Garden - May

Prepare planting holes for courgettes and marrows by digging holes about 30cm deep and wide and 1 metre apart. Dig plenty of J Arthur Bower’s Organic Farm Manure into each hole.

Runner beans can be sown outdoors towards the end of the month in trenches prepared earlier. It’s also safe to sow French beans now.

In warmer parts of the country why not try sweetcorn – it can be sown at the end of the month. Choose a warm sheltered site and sow in a block pattern – this will aid successful pollination.

Continue sowing beetroot, broad beans, winter cabbage, carrots, lettuce, peas, radishes, swedes and turnips. Protect cabbage and carrot sowings with fine mesh.

Plant out leeks that were sown earlier. Prepare the leek bed a few days before planting out by raking in an organic fertiliser such as J Arthur Bower’s Fish Blood & Bone or New Horizon Organic Poultry Manure. Don’t firm the leeks into the soil but water well after planting.

Transplant winter brassicas that were sowed last month. Make sure the little plants are watered very thoroughly before moving them and keep well watered especially in hot weather. Place J Arthur Bower’s Cabbage Collars around the young plants to protect from cabbage root fly.

If you haven’t managed to sow a selection of herbs it’s easy to find a good selection in garden centres. They can be planted into containers or scattered among the flower-beds if you don’t have a dedicated space.

Mint is a bit of a thug and can spread far and wide. It’s best grown in a pot, but the plants will need lifting each year and thinning otherwise the roots will become so congested the plants will fail to flourish. Now is a good time to thin them out. Discard any woody growth and re-plant young rooted shoots into pots filled with J Arthur Bower’s John Innes No. 2 or Multi-Purpose Compost with added John Innes.

Strawberries will be flowering now and soon the fruits will form. Protect them from mud, slugs and from rotting by laying J Arthur Bower’s Mulch Mats around the plants. Remove runners as they will take valuable energy from the plants – use runners for propagation if your plants are getting old. The best way to do this is to place small pots of your favourite J Arthur Bower’s or New Horizon Multi-Purpose Compost around the plants and peg a runner into each one. Aim to propagate no more than four or five runners per plant.

Raspberries can also throw up a mass of canes and become so overcrowded that the fruit won’t ripen properly. Thin them out by cutting through the roots with secateurs.

Check gooseberries for signs of mildew and prune out any affected shoots. Whilst doing this you can also look out for gooseberry sawfly larvae – pick off any that you find and put them on the bird table if you have one. Otherwise, squash them.