Many flowers and vegetables can be sown safely outdoors in May as the risk of frost is diminishing. Last month I made a lot of indoor sowings of plants which I currently have sheltered in my greenhouse and should be going out gradually by mid May. This includes tomatoes, chilies as well as a wide range of flowers such as cleomes and geraniums.

Below is a list of plants which are easy-to-grow and I shall start sowing most of them outdoors in May if the weather allows it.

Sunflower

Sowing flowers:

– Outdoor sunflowers: bring a bit of sunshine in your garden with tall sunflowers. May is a better month to grow them outdoors. I did sow some sunflowers seeds in my greenhouse in April but they did not germinate and it looks like a slug ate the tender shoots.
– Love-in-a-mist: easy to grow annuals usually available in shades of blue and pink.
– Sweet peas can be planted outside and trained to climb on a bamboo wigwam for example. Mine are already out.

Sowing vegetables:

– Sweet corn: easy to grow in modules and very tasty. Personally I tend to use them in a area where a visual screen is useful or alternatively to provide shade to other plants nearby.
– Squash and pumpkins: if you only have space for one of them, I recommend growing squash (butternut varieties are my favourite ones). Squash and pumpkins need a fair bit of space to grow and as well as feeding, which is why they are often grown on rotten compost heaps.
– Green beans – particularly dwarf green beans which are one of my favourite vegetables and are so expensive to buy from supermarkets that it’s really worth a try. I shall leave my green bean modules in the greenhouse until they are ready to be planted out.

Sowing herbs:

Many herbs such as basil and coriander need more warmth and sun to thrive and now is a good time to sow them.

This year I have decided that it is too late for me to grow any cauliflower in the garden since I fear that they will be affected by the white cabbage fly like last year.

I did sow some winter cabbage which is doing fine at present since the butterflies are only just starting to come out. And so we have had our first cabbage this week for the first of many crops to come.

Finally you can also continue to sow most of the seeds which I mentioned in my last article on what to sow in April.