Into top gear
May is the month when the veg garden changes into top gear with the first crops ready to harvest, more planting out, continued seed sowing and watering, pest control and staking.
The rhubarb harvest started a little late due to the harsh winter but soon caught up and we are now coming to the end. We have started picking the spinach and chard that has been overwintered in the cold frames. One of our students, Susie, had the privilege of cutting the first asparagus of the year. We've also been harvesting lettuce 'Unrivalled', which was only planted out last month.
Early in the month we applied an organic control against slugs (Nemaslug) to the areas where we have planted out courgettes and runner beans, and also on the seed beds. We spray the gooseberries and currants with a soap spray to control aphids.
Now that the danger of peach leaf curl has passed, we've taken down the peach screens and we can now see the trained trees in all their glory.
In the greenhouse we have planted nine varieties of tomato and two of cucumber; the rather fetching pink twine you can see in the picture will be attached to the greenhouse roof when the plants get to a size where they need supporting.