What vegetables and other plants to sow and plant in May

What vegetables and other plants to sow and plant in May

Head gardener Benjamin Pope explains what you should be planting in May. Illustration by Claire Harrup

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Published: May 1, 2024 at 7:23 am

Head gardener Benjamin Pope is here to make sure your garden looks great all year round.

Don't miss our suggestions of the best flowers in May, what gardens to visit and the gardening jobs for the month.

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What to plant in May

Repeat sowing: carrots, tender beans, salads, carrots, radish

Planting carrots in May
Planting carrots in May. © iStock / Getty Images Plus

Seed sowing in the greenhouse has started to slow down, as now many crops can be sown direct into the soil outside. I repeat sowings of salads and roots, such as carrots and radish, to continue the supply, while sowing or planting out tender beans including borlotti, edamame and French.

Plant out summer crops: tomatoes, sweet potatoes

Tomato planting
Tomato planting © mikroman6/Getty

Summer-loving crops, such as celeriac, tomatoes and sweet potatoes, leave the greenhouse and are planted into beds or containers.

Pumpkins

Planting squashes out in May
Planting squashes out in May © Westend61/Getty images

I like to plant our squashes and pumpkins among sweetcorn, incorporating Amaranthus ‘Autumn Palette’, Persicaria orientalis, Tagetes ‘Cinnabar’ and Tropaeolum majus. By summer the patch is full of foliage and colour that gets better as harvest approaches.

Companion planting

If space is at a premium, try a tumbling tomato mixed with Tropaeolum minus ‘Ladybird Rose’ and Thai basil. All suited to container growing, they’ll look good all summer while providing something to taste.

In the borders, seed-grown antirrhinums, cosmos and scabious are planted to fill gaps, while containers hold nemesias, salvias and verbenas. For foliage fillers, I love to use scented pelargoniums such as ‘Pink Capricorn’ or the silvery Helichrysum microphyllum ‘Silver Mist’ and Plectranthus argentatus. Experimentation is key and this year I’m including the cascading Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’, with floriferous perennials such as Verbena ‘Bampton’.

Here's the best flowers for May

© Claire Harrup

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