Vegging out - May

May is a crucial month in the gardening calendar, particularly with growing on young vegetable plants, hardening off and planting them out. So it was surprising that my brother and I, both veg growers, abandoned all our seedlings at the eleventh hour last month to go on our Scilly Isles holiday. We could have recalled our 1950’s childhood and begging our lovely father, “Dad, please, please can we go on holiday to the seaside?” No matter what month it was the answer was nearly always “No, I’ve got to look after the tomatoes.” I can see Dad’s point now. So have I got away with it in 2024?

Week one - back from holiday

Back in Marden to find that Lester, my husband, has done a great job keeping everything watered in the greenhouse and a watchful eye on the plants hardening off. So Alys and I set to finishing stringing the bean poles and planting out the dwarf and climbing French beans and sowing some runner beans direct, in the legume bed. Elsewhere, the sweet corn, some squashes and a courgette are planted out. In another of the raised beds a row of leeks are planted out and a second attempt is made at sowing rows of parsnips and beetroot.

With the assistance of Alys the top netting, which had been taken down for the winter, has been put back on the fruit cage to protect the emerging fruit on the bushes from the birds.

It is all going well.

Weeks two and three - it isn’t going well at all!

The slugs take over

One by one all the family have come down with Covid. Then it is my turn, and the plants have to more or less fend for themselves. It couldn’t have come at a worse time - every year, the middle of May is the time when I feel everything should be out in the ground. The tomatoes are still languishing in their pots, so are the cucumbers, most of the courgettes and several squashes.

By the time I do venture out the slugs have taken over, eating the sweetcorn, all of the emerging runner beans, and all but one of the climbing and dwarf French beans which had been reasonable sized plants.

There was also the day when our 2 year old granddaughter looked out of the living room window and shouted “Look a dog!” We couldn’t see anything in the garden, and frankly she isn’t the most reliable witness - more often than not it is “Look a dinosaur!” or “Look Harry Potter!” However, a couple of days later I venture out to look at the raised beds and find that something quite large has been using the bed where I sowed the parsnip and beetroot, as a litter tray. It does look like dog poo, and there is now no sign of any rows of seedlings.

Covid has made me feel nauseous anyway. Going off the idea of growing your own, and eating it!

But there is progress

Bit by bit the greenhouse is rearranged and tidied. With Lester’s help the shading is put up and the tomato plants - Black Russian, San Marzano, Sungold and Piccolo, and Ailsa Craig (thank you, Sue) - are potted up with Grow Bag compost into Auto Pots, and put into the trays. Then it was time to link up the valves to the reservoirs with the tubing. We have done it many times before, but it took ages to work it out this time - it must be that Covid has addled our brains.

Finally, we did it and the reservoirs are filled.

Week four plus - the fight back

Time to really get on with things - the remaining squash and courgettes are planted out. Meanwhile the remaining 4 cucumbers and 4 sweet pepper plants are added to the last of Auto Pot trays and put in the greenhouse though not connected to the reservoirs - these are to be watered by hand So this means that the hardening off area outside the greenhouse can be tidied up and things put away. This is great, it means less trip hazards and the garden looks a lot better - but there is a mountain of pots and trays to wash.

Next job, taking on the garden visitor and the resident slugs. In the bean bed, I put crumpled netting between the rows of bean poles and stick short sticks into the soil to deter any dog/cat/fox (or dinosaur!) from using the bed as a litter tray. Then runner, climbing and dwarf French beans are resown and crushed eggshells sprinkled over the area. Apparently slugs and snails don’t like slithering over this, and as an extra precaution I’ve purchased some eco friendly slug pellets for use when the beans shoots start to appear. Elsewhere, around the stalks of the young courgettes and squashes I wind some threads of wool combed from felt, and put Strulch more widely around each plant. I’m told slugs dislike these textures too - time will tell!

Finally the tomatoes in the greenhouse are tied onto bamboo canes and the side shoots are removed as they appear between the main stem and the leaf stalks. With a bit of luck order has been restored in the veg garden.