Mid-May to Mid-June is such a wonderful time for planting out veggies – the soil is warming up nicely, night time temperatures are much kinder and there are fewer of those strong north and east winds blowing through. It’s the perfect planting time.
The next few weeks in your plot
The next few weeks are all about planting and nurturing. There is so much that you can plant at this time of year, and the veg plants will be so happy for well prepared soil and plenty of watering. If you can mulch them, that is a really good idea, and you can read more on that in the post below.
Once you’ve planted, we’d recommend watering thoroughly and well two to three times a week while the plants are getting established, or daily if the weather stays very dry. If you’re growing in pots, you may need to water daily. We suggest watering early in the morning if you can, because that way the soil will dry by the evening and be less slug-friendly overnight.
Try to keep on top of weeds once your veggies are in the ground. Honestly, the easiest thing to do is to mulch, and then run a hoe over beds once or twice a week. Plants will also need to be kept safe from some of the usual suspects – slugs, snails, rabbits, pigeons, cabbage white butterflies, so be sure to check the growing guide that comes with your plants and follow the advice in there.
Once we hit mid-June and early July, there is almost a second wave of planting that you can do – it’s a good time to plant up extra salad plants and a great opportunity to plant herbs and companions. You’ll be able to plant brassicas to grow into autumn and over winter (it’s also a great idea to do this in July/early August), you can get extra peas and beans planted out very happily as well as squash and courgettes which will grow really fast, and there’s an opportunity to replace any plants that get lost to pests in late June as well.
The next few weeks on the farm
We are shipping several hundred orders a day, and it is very much all hands on deck here at the farm to keep sowing new seeds, make sure all the plants have enough water, selecting those plugs that are ready to send and packing them up carefully to get them delivered as quickly as possible. If you’re waiting for your plants to arrive, rest assured we are going as fast as we can and there is still plenty of time for planting (although we know and appreciate that you will be keen to get out into your garden asap)
We are also growing a few new plants for summer planting, so keep an eye out in our Weekly Veg Out newsletters for more information when they become available.