May 2024 Edible Garden Planner

Early May edible garden

Saturday, May 4, 2024

May Day is when the old timers say is the best time to plant your summer garden in the Midwest.  Prior to May 1, there is still a good chance of poor weather, chilly temps, and even a late frost in our Zone 7 garden.  This can be catastrophic for tomatoes, eggplants, basil and other heat lovers.  This year our last frost was 2-3 weeks ago.

At least today, we have the added advantage of the 15 day forecast!  Check out your 15 day forecast to know if it looks safe to plant those tender summer veggies as it is possible to have chilly temps even into May.  If direct planting summer vegetable seeds, chilly and rainy conditions can cause the seeds to rot.  Warm, moist conditions are the best for summer seed success!

I started the summer lovers from seeds this year indoors for the small seeds in late March and in outdoor pots a couple of weeks ago for the large seed plants like squash, melons and cucumbers.  I direct sow all my bean seeds and did those this last week.  The small seeded plants like basil, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant have all been transplanted.  The large seeded plants need about another week of maturing before I will plant them out.  

If you started yours indoors and have already transplanted outdoors, what do you do if they are forecasting frost?  Give them a jacket!  You can cover your frost sensitive plants with a row cover or light sheet.  You just want to be sure that the cover is not too heavy and crushes your plants.  Remove after the frost is melted.  If you plant in pots, you can move your pots into the garage for the night.  For more on protection for plants, see Starting the garden earlier, outwitting Jack Frost... 

Row cover

Spring has had days above and days below average temperatures and below average rainfall.  I've had to water all my pots on a regular basis through April.  The greens that love the cool weather are doing great!  You just don't want to plant the summer lovers too early as they don't like being cold and don't grow much until the soil warms.  Earlier is not always better.  If you have already planted, no worries as long as you protect them if Jack Frost comes calling.  They just won't grow fast until the weather warms.

May is the time to get the summer lovers growing.  All about the summer edible garden  For the plants to get going in May: What to plant in the May edible garden  If sowing your summer veggie seeds outdoors, see Outdoor seed starting tips 

The cold crops are at their peak at the beginning of the month with many bolting and going to seed by month's end like spinach, cilantro, lettuce, chard, kale, sprouting broccoli, and onions.  To preserve greens while they are still at their peak is quick and easy.  Freezing the extras for winter  The only green that is not frozen?  Lettuce.  I keep lettuce going in the garden by planting new seed every 3 weeks.

Lettuce, spinach and cilantro all go to bolting as soon as the temps hit the 80's in our garden.  All my spinach is bolting now.  You can let them go to seed and either save the seed to plant or let the seed fall where it may to give you new lettuce, spinach and cilantro plants.  An added bonus to letting these plants go to seed is that the bees love their small flowers.  Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver

Mid May garden

So, what are we planting this year?  Of course, we will plant the number one veggie in the USA-tomatoes!   This year, I am growing them all from seed.  You could also just buy plants as there is a great selection of heirlooms at local nurseries, hardware stores and big box stores these days.  I am in a smaller garden again this year, so I am trying to limit the number and type I am growing this year to a purple slicer (Cherokee Purple), red paste tomato (Italian Red Pear), chocolate cherry types for salads (Chocolate Pear and Indigo Pear Drops), and a storage tomato (Red October).  Choosing which tomatoes to grow   Loving the purple tomatoes with all their fantastic antioxidants!  Different colors in tomatoes give different nutrition

I may spray the seedlings with an organic fungicide to give them some protection.  We have such hot, humid conditions that fungus grows well here!  I looked at the chemical fungicides but they contain cancer causing chemicals so I'll stick with the ones approved for organic growing.  Tomatoes 101, everything you need to know to grow great tomatoes  

If you have limited space, look for the dwarf/bush types like Bush Early Girl (only 54 days till ripe tomatoes), Patio Princess, Husky Red, Lizzano, Little Napoli, Front Runner, Tumbling Tom among many others. Typically, you can expect to have your first ripe tomatoes around the 4th of July.  The earliest tomato bearing variety I have grown is Yellow Tumbling Tom that gave me tomatoes in June.  They grow great in the garden or pots.  Since they are smaller plants, their yields will be less than the big plants in the ground.  Compact tomato plants for small spaces  Nowadays, you can purchase full grown plants to get instant fresh tomatoes at this time of year.

I will be growing vining snap beans (Blauhilde for disease resistance and production), winged beans and lima beans this year.  Now is a great time to get them planted.  Legumes-peas for spring, beans for summer  

For peppers, I am growing one sweet peppers for fresh snacking, an Ancho/Pablano for drying to make into chili powder, a hot pepper plant Jigsaw plant that I overwintered indoors, and a new hot pepper Tunisian Baklouti.  I grow hot peppers for hot sauce and to add to my salsa.  Homemade hot sauce wings with homegrown celery  Quick, homemade salsa  Preserving peppers

I also overwinter an ancient hot pepper in the basement called Chiltepin.  It is thought to be the ancestor of all hot peppers.  This is its eighth winter and it did great.  It produces very small, very hot round red peppers.  I dry them and use them in my grilling spice mix and for spicy olive oil.  Using herbs, flowers and fruit for flavored sugars and salts

 This year I am again going to plant all my peppers in pots.  It just seems that my peppers do better in a pot than in the ground for the smaller peppers.  I like the smaller peppers because the plants produce more than larger pepper plants.  Bell peppers seemed to produce more in ground when I have grown them in the past.  I will refresh the potting soil and fertilize the seedlings I started when I transplant to their outdoor pot.  Re-energize your potting soil!   Peppers are for every taste and garden

I am growing a few eggplants that have stayed sweet in our garden.  Our summers get so hot here that eggplant skins can get tough and the fruits bitter so I always look for the varieties that are good for our temps.  My choices this year are Rotanda Bianca, Amadeo, and AO Daimaru.  Eggplant-add this native from India to your garden

White eggplant fruit

I am growing just vining summer squash, Trombetta.   I like this squash for several reasons.  They were not affected by the squash vine borer or squash bugs, they had almost no powdery mildew, and you can eat when the fruits are young as you would zucchini or let them stay on the vine and the skins will toughen to use as winter squash.  Growing zucchini and summer squash  One plant produces as much as a typical family needs during the summer.  This type has vines up to 20 feet long so I just let it grow on the ground.

I found some great ways to use and preserve zucchini that any extra will be stored for many new ways of using.  What to do with all that zucchini?!  I really liked spiralizing zucchini into "zoodles" and using in place of spaghetti.  I'll spiralize and put into freezer bags so I have a low carb, nutritious option anytime for spaghetti.

I am also trying a disease resistant type of spaghetti squash-Warsaw spaghetti, and a winter squash that is supposed to be a decent substitute for potatoes called Mashed Potato.  I tried them both last year and both were not disease resistant to the squash bugs that invaded them.

I am going back to Red Burgundy okra this year.  I've tried a few different varieties but this one seems to do the best in my garden.  Growing and harvesting okra

  I've got cucumber, spinach, and lettuce seedlings this year for salads and to make green smoothies.  Grow your own juice garden   I am growing a bush cucumber this year so I am hoping it won't need a trellis.  Cucumber info and tips for growing  I have plenty of volunteer celery and mustard in the garden so no planting needed for them.  I am trying to grow a pink celery for a fun pop of color along with Rose and Purple orach and Pink Beauty amaranth which are great for summer salad leaves.  Orach and amaranth leaves stay sweet all summer.

Lettuce varieties that are in my spring garden are Red and Green Roma, Iceberg, Buttercrunch, Giant Blue Feather, Yedikule, Grand Rapids, Royal Oak, Forellenschluss, Bronze Beauty, Butter King, Lunix, and Solar Flare.  I am always trying new varieties to see which are the best at staying sweet in our summer heat and also re-sowing themselves.

Lettuce and spinach aren't the only greens you can use for salads, see more at  Growing summer salads

For summer salads, I have many volunteer Red Malabar spinach coming up, have seedlings of Perpetual Spinach and Verde de Taglio chard, have Hilton Chinese cabbage for salads and wraps, Komatsuna Tendergreen and Giant Leaf mustard for sweet summer salad leaves.  I always grow Radish Dragon's Tail for salads, too.  They're just fun and add a pop of not too strong radish flavor.

For the next round of lettuce sowings, I'll go with the more heat resistant varieties like Jericho Romaine which has been tested to last 3 months before bolting as well as Red Sails loose leaf lettuce which stays sweet after bolting.   Want continuous harvests? Succession planting!   Look for varieties that have heat tolerant in the descriptor.  Here are some varieties that are proven to do well in the summer   Bolt-free, sweet summer lettuces

Spring potted lettuce

For herbs, I have a bay tree and moringa tree that overwintered in the basement. I have sown seeds for Genovese basil, Cardinal basil, Giant Italian parsley, dill, chives, cilantro, rosemary, winter savory, lemon savory, marjoram and a pretty blue sage.  Many of my herbs are perennials and are going strong in the garden right now-tarragon, garlic chives, onions, oregano, thyme, fennel, mint, and garlic.  For more on herbs, see  Start a kitchen herb garden!

As I transplant my seedlings, I like to powder the roots of each plant with plant starter as well as dig in some fertilizer in each hole.  Plant starter has mycorrhizal microbes which fixes nitrogen to the roots of the plant, helping it to grow sturdier, bigger and faster.  Once you have the microbes in the soil, they should stay year after year, but adding each year can't hurt anything!

I add Azomite around each of my transplants under the mulch every other year.  This year was the year to add it.  Azomite contains many minerals which can result in significantly improved growth for your plants and more minerals in your harvested plants for a healthier you.  A win-win for your garden and your family.

During the growing season, you should fertilize monthly.  Only add what a soil test said your garden needed when it comes to phosphorous and potassium.  You can get too much of both in the garden.  My soil test said I needed to lower the pH of the soil, add nitrogen and potassium.  I didn't need any phosphorous. 

I added pelletized sulfur to lower the pH in March.  My pH is at 7.8.  For edibles, it really shouldn't go above 7.5 for the plants to be able to absorb all the minerals it needs from the soil.   The next step in garden production and your nutrition-soil minerals

Before you send your new transplants into the garden, insure they have been sufficiently "hardened off."  If you started your own seeds indoors, take your plants out daily over a week or so into a partially shady spot, letting them get used to the strong sun and wind.  I put mine out on the deck to get used to the sun and wind for several days before planting out.  "Hardening off" seedlings

If you purchased your transplants and they were already outdoors, they are ready to be plopped into the ground or pot and grow!

I always interplant my garden with flowers.  This year, I am using petunias, red flowering Hummingbird Vine, Blue morning glory flowering vine, cock's comb, marigolds, Love Lies Bleeding and dwarf Cocks Comb for annuals.  For perennials, there are pink Fairy lilies, white flowering jasmine vine,  hollyhocks in a variety of colors-Summer Carnival, Red and Peach, purple coneflower, lilies, day-lilies, irises, and gladiolas.

May is an exciting time in the garden.  Every day you go out, you can see things growing.  The spring vegetables are in their prime, the summer veggies are just starting, and there are so many herbs ready for seasoning your favorite salads or dishes.  Just be sure to keep ahead of the weeds and provide even watering.