May

Tree fruit

• Pull off suckers appearing around the base of fruit trees.
• Liquid feed fruit trees growing in pots with a balanced feed every fortnight.
• Remove wayward shoots on fan-trained trees and tie in better placed ones.

Soft fruit

• Plant out alpine strawberry seedlings sown in early spring.
• Deblossom strawberry runners planted since September.
• Thin out crowded raspberry shoots.
• Thin gooseberries if you want large fruit.
• Water blueberries, cranberries and lingonberries when needed with rainwater, but use tap water when butts are empty.

Vine fruit

• Take softwood cuttings of kiwifruit.
• Tie in leading and sideshoots of kiwifruit.
• Remove any winter protection from figs and carry out pruning.
• Move growing-bags into the greenhouse to warm up two weeks before planting indoor melons, and water well two days before planting.
• Sow outdoor melons in a heated propagator.
• Gently run your hand over indoor grape vine flowers to pollinate them.

General care

• Make sure fruit isn’t drought stressed, especially those in containers, against a wall or newly planted.
• Make sure bees can access caged and cloched fruit flowers to ensure pollination.
• Keep a check on late frost forecasts and protect blossom as necessary.

Sowing and planting

• Sow French beans, runner beans, squash, cucumbers and pumpkin seeds directly into prepared beds outside. Be alert to late frosts (for which a covering of horticultural fleece should provide sufficient protection).
• Sow sweet corn outside in blocks, at least 45cm (18in) spacing, with two seeds per hole. The strongest seedling can be selected later.
• Sow cauliflowers and purple sprouting broccoli for harvesting next winter.
• Try sowing some unusual vegetables such as kohl rabi (like a large white above-ground turnip), scorzonera and salsify.
• Witloof chicory can be sown this month, to have some ready for forcing next winter. Sow in drills directly outside.
• After all risk of frost has passed, plant out tomatoes, courgettes and pumpkins that were previously sown under cover.
• Other young plants can be planted out once conditions are suitable, and once they've been hardened off (acclimatised to the colder outdoor conditions) for 10 to 14 days.
• Brussels sprouts for next winter should now be ready for transplanting after early or mid-spring sowing.
• Plant out artichokes that were previously sown under cover.
• Self-blanching celery can also be planted out towards the end of the month.
• Ridge cucumbers can be sown indoors now, for planting out in early June.

General care

• Earth up potatoes when the shoots are 23cm (9in) high, in order to prevent the new tubers going green. Earthing-up is the drawing up of soil around the stems of the plants, leaving just 5cm (2in) of shoot uncovered so that the plant has enough foliage to continue growing.
• Start to remove sideshoots from cordon tomatoes as you see them. The sideshoots develop in the leaf axils (i.e. between the stem and leaf), and if allowed to develop will sap the energy of the plant and reduce the quality of the yield.
• Strings stretched along the tops of broad bean plants can support them, and prevent them flopping once pods develop.
• Peas need staking with pea sticks, netting, or pruned twigs from the garden.