Brancaster Allotment Society

May

• KEEP HOEING
• Prepare runner bean supports and framework.
• Put straw around your strawberry plants.
• It can still be chilly so don’t forget to harden plants off before planting them out.
• Mulch soil to retain moisture; you can use newspaper, grass cuttings, leaf mould and straw.

Sow outdoors; Beetroot, cabbages (autumn), calebrese, carrots, cauliflowers, chicory, courgettes, French beans, lettuce, marrows, peas, pumpkins, radish, runner beans, spring onions, swedes, sweetcorn, swiss chard, squash.

Plant out; Leeks & brassicas that have been grown in greenhouse and hardened off outside.

Eat this month; Asparagus, cabbages (spring), lettuce, radish, rocket.

Top Tips; Water soak marrow and courgette seeds overnight for a good start.

Straw can be used as an insulator and also as a slug deterrent.

June

• Encourage runner beans up their supports.
• Make sure potatoes are earthed up.
• Remove all side shoots from tomatoes, and if some of the flowers have set, start to feed the plants.
• If you are watering your allotment, do it early in the morning or late afternoon to avoid evaporation – and soak rather than splash.
• Peg down strawberry runners.
• Protect any fruit with netting.

Sow outdoors this month;

• Calabrese
• Carrots
• Chicory
• French and runner beans
• Kohl rabi
• Lettuce
• Turnips and Swedes.

You might be eating your first early potatoes this month, along with beetroot, broad beans, globe artichokes, lettuce, peas, radish and rocket.

Tips;

When you lift your first early potatoes, why not keep a few tubers aside and replant in a sunny spot. By late September they will need covering with cloches to protect them and then you could dig them up to have with your Xmas dinner.

Transplant;

Broccoli  –  Brussels sprouts  –  Cabbages  –  Celeriac  –  Courgettes  –  Cucumbers  –  French beans  – Sweet corn  –  Tomatoes.

JULY

• Water your tomatoes and sweetcorn; don’t water when it is hot and sunny. Tie in your tomatoes and remove the side shoots.
• Runner beans; when they are tall enough, remove the leading shoots to encourage heavier cropping.
• Start to lift onions and leave out to dry.
• Lift early potatoes.
• Harvest calebrese heads to encourage others to develop to the side.

You could be sowing outside;

• More carrots – Chinese cabbages  – Lettuce  – Pak choi  – Peas for the autumn  – Spring cabbages.

You could be planting out;

• Beetroot  – Calebrese – French beans – Leeks – Runner beans – Turnips – Winter brassicas.

Tips;

• Mulch on dry spots to retain moisture
• You could try nastertium flowers and leaves in salads