“smiles in the sun, and it is May”
What Seeds to Sow in May.
The trees are greening with new leaf, May is off to a warm start but hold fast as night time temperatures can plummet with cloudless skies. I have succumbed and planted out one of my containers with petunias, bacopa and brachycome but I shall keep a eye on the forecast. My dahlias are doing well but not yet big enough to be planted out.
Sowing directly into the soil
I am sowing direct into the soil now the ground has warmed up and dried out. Amongst my borders I shall sprinkle varieties to attract pollinators and feed the butterflies. A huge range of flowers can be sown in May. Choose a colour palette and select your favourites. Mine include calendula (pot marigold), marigolds (tagetes), nasturtium, poached egg (limnanthes douglasii), poppies, cornflower and scabious.
Perennials such as delphiniums, lupins, aquilegia, primula, and other perennials can be sown in seed trays for next year's blooms. Similarly biennials like foxgloves, dianthus and wallflowers. Tuck away in a corner but don’t forget to water them!
Alongside my broad beans (overwintered and already in flower) I shall sow lettuce, rocket, and other leafy greens for a continuous harvest. Later this month I will sow a selection of runner beans and climbing French beans direct at the foot of their supports plus some In modules or individual pots to fill in any gaps.
Herbs too now – pots of basils of various flavours and/or parsley, chives, chervil, dill, coriander can also be sown directly outdoors or in pots depending on your space. The perennial herb types too, rosemary, thyme, sage, lovage and lemon balm can also be sown now though they will take a little while to mature for picking. Another one of my favourites is savory, either summer or winter their peppery taste is brilliant with beans. Summer savory ((satureja hortensis) is annual and winter savory (satureja montana) perennial. Summer savory is milder whilst winter savory gives a more intense flavour.
What else could I sow?
Depending on your taste you could also sow dwarf French beans, sweetcorn, sunflowers, carrots, peas, broccoli, and cabbage. Not forgetting the salad crops - lettuce of all shapes and sizes, salad leaf mixes, spring onions, beetroot, radishes, cucumber. If planting tomatoes and peppers outside do take note of the weather forecasts and protect if late frosts are suggested. Mine are potted on but kept indoors for the present. I will start hardening them off soon, getting them used to being outside in the big wide world.
I will start off my courgette in a pot indoors and then plant out later this month. Similarly with other cucurbits – pumpkins, squash, cucumber, marrow, melon. Set the seed on its edge in a pot of peat free compost about 1cm deep, cover and water. Keep in a warm place, propagator or sunny window sill. Covering the pot with a plastic bag helps retain moisture BUT remove once the seed germinates. Some sow 2 to a pot and then discard the smallest.
March's bud, and April's flower,
The sensitive green of the growing hour—
Then there comes an indolent day
That smiles in the sun, and it is May...
~Mark Van Doren, "Hardhead," Spring Thunder and Other Poems, 1924