Seeds to Sow in May

May is an exciting month in the gardening calendar. The temperatures really start to ramp up and we can sow the majority of seeds now.

This month is a month of fun sowings for me! Squashes, cucumbers, courgettes, french beans, runner beans and sweetcorn! They are all super easy seeds to sow and will put on growth in no time. I can’t wait for their bountiful harvests.

Cucumbers

If you have never grown a cucumber yourself then you HAVE to grow some this year! The flavours of a homegrown cucumber are nothing like what you buy in the supermarkets. A homegrown cucumber has a flavour profile on another level! Sow cucumber seeds on their side to avoid them rotting if the compost is too wet. Why not try our Cucumber ‘Crystal Lemon’ this year for something a little different?

French Beans

I will be sowing our dwarf and climbing French beans this month. I like to sow these in deep module trays where they get off to a good start before planting out in June. We have a larger selection of beans this year including Neckargold and Barlotto di Fuoco.

Runner Beans

As with the French beans, we will be sowing these under cover this month to plant out in June. Bean seeds can rot easily so I much prefer sowing under cover when I can control the watering plus, the temperatures are warmer in the greenhouse than the soil outdoors. I am excited to grow our Scarlet Emperor runner beans this year. Scarlet Emperor is a heritage variety from 1633 and it has vibrant red edible flowers too!

Sweetcorn

I absolutely love growing sweetcorn. I like to sow my sweetcorn seeds in modules and then plant out when the seedlings are putting on growth. Why not try and grow some climbing beans with the sweetcorn! The sweetcorn provides a sturdy structure for the beans to climb up and hold on to.

Squashes

I will be sowing all of my winter squashes in the greenhouse in early May to get them off to a flying start. You can still wait a bit longer if you prefer to direct sow your squash seeds.

Courgettes

Every year we say we won’t sow as many courgettes and every year we end up with courgettes coming out of our ears! I can’t help but love them though so I’ll be sowing both our Courgette Cocozelle and our Gold Rush varieties

Brussels Sprouts

Your window for sowing brussels sprouts is nearly over if you want sprouts for Christmas so please do make sure you get these in the next week or two.

Chilli Peppers

I do still have a couple of varieties that I haven’t sown yet as I purposely wanted to wait to experiment with a later sowing. There is nothing wrong with sowing chilli seeds now but I do think that you need to get moving on these if you haven’t already done so.

Peas

Whether you are growing for garden peas or pea shoots I love to keep these going throughout the season. We have a beautiful variety this year called Carouby de Maussanne which is believed to be the original mange tout! We also have the ever popular Kelvedon Wonder

Tomatoes

You can still sow your tomato seeds this month. The brighter days and warmer temperatures will really help them put on growth quickly.

Succession Sowings

I will be making extra successional sowings of most other vegetable and salad seeds now to keep the harvests going all through the summer season and into the autumn. These sowings will include salads, spring onions, kales, kohl rabi, chard and radishes etc. With all of your successional sowings, just sow little and often – a few salads, a few spring onions etc. There is no need to over sow if you commit to sowing things every few weeks throughout the season.

Happy Sowing!