No nonsense gardening facts

Salads Keep up successional sowings of all salad crops. Marrows and courgettes: Early this month is a good time to sow marrows. Sow three seeds at each station, spacing these 90 cm (3 ft) apart each way, and placing the seeds 5 cm (2 in) deep. Thin to the strongest plant if more than one germinates. Transplanted thinnings will not develop into plants sufficiently large to produce fruits. Marrows are Read More

Set out the plants in cloches or frames, each on a slight mound so that water drains away freely from the stems. This helps to avoid most of the stem rots that may affect melons if water lays around the base of the stems for too long. When planting, dig out a hole about 30 cm (1 ft) square and the depth of a spade blade, filling this with well-rotted manure or garden compost. On top of this place the Read More

Sow sweetcorn outdoors towards the end of the month, setting two or three seeds at each station and thinning to the strongest plant as soon as they are large enough to handle. The female flowers, or ‘silks’ as they are called, have to be pollinated in order to produce a well-filled cob. As successful pollination depends on the wind, sow in a block of not less than twelve stations, spacing these Read More

Continue with successional sowings of beetroot, radishes, spinach, carrots, main-crop peas and broad beans. There is still time to sow parsnips if this was not done last month. Lettuces: This is an ideal month to sow lettuces of the curly, crisp type, often referred to as Iceberg. These stand the dry, hot conditions often met with in June and July and rarely run to seed. Recommended cultivars are Read More

French beans These delicious beans are tender, half-hardy annuals and require an open but sheltered position as they are vulnerable to wind damage. They need soil that has been deeply dug and, although they do not require such generous feeding as runner beans, they do best on ground that has been dressed with farmyard manure or compost during the autumn or winter. Most failures with French beans occur Read More

Tender, fresh young broccoli gathered from the garden is a delicious vegetable. Closely related to the cauliflower, it was introduced into Britain from Italy. The best Italian broccoli is the green, sprouting kind called calabrese, which comes from Calabria in the sunny south. There are some excellent cultivars from which to choose. The modern hybrids produce bumper crops on dwarf plants, which are Read More

Melon seeds can be sown now, ready for planting, in June, when temperatures generally will be above 13°C (55°F) even at night. The best for frame or cloche culture are the small kind, called Cantaloupes, most of which have pink or orange flesh. The easiest to grow, and probably the best cultivars, are ‘Early Sweet’, ‘Ogen’ and ‘Sweetheart’. Sow each seed 12 mm (0.5 in) deep in an 8 cm Read More

Lettuce: Make small sowings of lettuces in the open. For preference, choose one of the Butter-head types, round, smooth-leaved lettuces that offer a wide choice of cultivars. Sow them in shallow drills, 2 cm (3/4 in) deep, with 30 cm (1 ft) between the rows. Ten weeks from sowing is the earliest one can produce lettuces from an outdoor sowing. It is good practice to sow little and often for continuous Read More

Garden peas do best in deeply-dug, well-drained soil, with plenty of organic matter worked into the top. They do not grow well when the soil is compacted or waterlogged. Peas have root nodules containing nitrogen-fixing bacteria, so they can make some of the nitrogen they need. As garden soils usually have plenty of phosphate and potash left over from previous crops, additional fertilizer may be unnecessary, Read More

This vegetable belongs to the cabbage family and in a rotation of crops should be on the same plot as other brassicas. It is grown chiefly for its roots, but the tops, which make excellent spring greens, may also be used. Turnips do best in cool, moist conditions and they will tolerate light shade. They do well on land that has been manured for a previous crop but, failing this, give a top-dressing Read More