The Garden Action website tells me that the last frost that can be expected in London has already passed, in mid-April; if this is right (any ideas, folks?), it means that we should be able to plant out tender crops about now, rather than from the first week in June as books suggest. I got overly excited by the good weather and (rashly? time will tell) rushed ahead and planted out my outdoor toms (greenhouse ones are coming along nicely) – I now need to hope for fairly good weather over the next fortnight. 

Things seem to be going well on the allotment this year, as I’ve put my building project on a back burner while the busy sowing time is here. French beans (bush) have germinated, albeit patchily (I’ll fill in the gaps with seeds when I remember), and I’ve grown some climbing ones indoors which I’ve already planted out in compost under a large trellis frame. Runner beans have also been sown indoors to give them a good head start – I’ll plant these out over the next week or so (this is possibly too early, but others are doing it so I’ll go along with them). 

Of course, anything grown indoors must be acclimatised to the outdoors first over a week or so of gradually increasing the time outdoors – known as hardening off. If you fail to do it, you can easily set a plant back by a fortnight, whilst the plant goes into shock and growth completely stagnates. It’s a – competitively guilty – pleasure of mine seeing plants I’ve taken my time hardening off catch up with larger plants of neighbours who didn’t bother. 

Vita and I have just sown our cucurbits - or cucumber family - seeds. These all need warmth, rich soil and moisture (a cucumber is 98% water). Sow them in individual pots, two seeds to a pot, with the seeds sown sideways at double their diameter’s depth. I don’t bother sowing sideways and get away with it. Nor do I bother sowing directly, as the slugs murder them – although once they get beyond the seedling stage, they develop tough hairs on the leaves and shoots which gastropods (Latin for ‘stomach walker’ – a wonderfully accurate name) find unappealing.

If you’re growing early potatoes, these should be watered well about weekly in dry weather – the crop will be reduced if not. Don’t bother sprinkling water all over the place, which just ends up watering the weed seedlings: just hold the hose directly over the plant for 15-20 seconds, which should get the water deep down into its roots, where it’s needed. 

In fact, the above is how all plants should be watered – far less regularly, and far more ‘deeply’– which’ll train the plant to look deep down for water and help it develop a stronger root system. Shallow, regular watering, as many on the site do, only teaches plants to keep roots near the surface, leading to weaker and less deep-rooted plants, as well as wasting shed loads of water.

With apologies, I’m going to plug an upcoming allotment event: from 29 May, I’m going to be running an allotment/veg growing course for the JCC, which’ll run over 8 weeks into the summer/autumn, about once a fortnight. 

I got a nice email from Esmond Rosen of the Jewish Volunteer Network, enclosing some pics of his site from last year – they’re below. If you’re interested in volunteering your time to help less able people, Esmond’s email is Esmond@jvn.org.uk

Please send any pics of your crops – I have harvested very little other than asparagus, rhubarb and broccoli, and look forward to my first bowl of salad potatoes. Until then, happy sowing and harvesting,

Alexei 

Here’s what to do this month: