There's lots to do in May but little to eat. For a few weeks I've been using spring onions from the garden but nothing else is edible at the moment. I am trying to stay motivated, looking back over posts from last year to remind myself why it is worth all the effort. My autumn planted onions and garlic will be the next things to harvest. Now that the chance of frost has passed, I must sow quick growing crops like radish. They don't provide much sustenance but plenty of satisfaction.
Last year I had great success with legumes, namely broad beans and mange tout. Broad beans were a particular joy to grow and eat as they are rarely available fresh in my local area. You can eat the young plant tips, the young pods whole and the older pods shelled to reveal the plump beans. A particularly memorable meal was in a creamy risotto with John Dory:
This year's plants are starting to flower and are looking strong and healthy. They were planted in early spring and I am curious to see the differences with last year's crop, which were autumn planted. This is said to be a more favourable practice as it helps avoid the black bean aphid. My plants were infested with the aphid eventually but by that stage my crop was almost finished so I had few casualties. I hope I don't suffer because of my later planting this year. A glance back to last year's
post around this time shows that my first beans had sprouted. This year, the flowers are just getting established.
My second round of brassica seedlings are doing well outdoors. I've realised that I may have over planted purple sprouting broccoli (eleven plants eeek) but luckily it's a versatile and delicious veg that will freeze well. It is also somewhat rarely seen around these parts so maybe I can offload some if I pluck up the courage to try and sell it.
I eat a lot of cherry tomatoes and I've discovered that the little pots I buy them in are excellent for potting on little seedlings. They have drainage holes in the bottom.
A leek seedling is borne (planted 16th of April):
And here are some that were planted on the 28th of February:
James Scarlet Intermediate carrot seedlings planted on the 15th of April:
And Early Nantes carrots planted on the 15th of March:
I never have much success planting salad leaves directly into the ground because apart from spinach, I can never tell the seedlings from the weeds, and the slugs devour most anyway. This year I am using a large hard plastic fish box (the kind trawlers use) for spinach, pak choi and lambs lettuce, planted on 13th of April. I have also transplanted two broad bean plants in the hope that their nitrogen fixing abilities will help my leafy plants.
