What to Sow in May for Self-Sufficiency

[@AlexBowers]

Summary: - Main crop potatos - Winter Vegetables - Parsnips - Suede - Leeks - Brassicas - Kale - Cabbage - Purple Sprouting Broccoli - Squash / pumpkin - Carrots - Peas / Beans - Pak Choi - Bulb fennel - Salads (succession plant) - Lettuce - Rocket - Spinach - Baby chard

[@LawdDemRangz]

These videos are gems in an otherwise bland feed of videos. The production is great, and the pace is perfect. Thanks again, Huw; I'm off to sow more arugula in the garden.

[@objektivone3209]

Always a pleasure to watch your videos. Especially the high degree of dignity for the tasks makes the videos of yours worth watching.

[@HighWealder]

Sutherland Kale is by far the most productive cabbage family plant that I have ever discovered. Can be picked continuously and just keeps sprouting, plus so sweet you can eat it raw.

[@Iamhome365]

Oh looking forward to this! I got a 40ft polycarbonate tunnel about 2 weeks ago and very busy! So much needs to be done, busy planting and scutch grass is the bane of my life, digging it out as much as I can but hard work

[@HadassahHaman]

Thank you Huw! Another great video. I've got everything going and growing in my garden this year and....thank you for introducing me to leeks! I am enjoying this new addition to my back yard garden. Again thank you for another great video!!! ❤️

[@kathyritscher9459]

I will dehydrate the leaves of my brassicas and powder for a green powder to add to many dishes.

[@kathyritscher9459]

I also add spinach, chard, kales

[@DalePoole]

Loving this type of video. Here on the east coast of Canada, my growing season is 4-6 weeks behind yours. These videos give me a heads up about what I need to consider next in my own garden. Thanks!

[@ingevankeirsbilck9601]

Thanks to the cold, rainy weather over the last few months, we are behind our own growing seasons here in Europe as well 😅

[@Asa-df8kb]

I plant my own saved potatoes this year which saves a lot of money as well. That's my top tip to add to yours. Thank you so much for the video!😊

[@ashleymccarthy6232]

I don't have the capacity to grow my own right now, but this is invaluable advice that I hope to one day follow. Thank you.

[@BeverleyW]

If it is because of lack of space or having a garden, maybe consider microgreens and salad leaves and herbs grown on a windowsill, or in pots, hanging baskets or window boxes outside.

[@renatehaeckler9843]

I love your videos even tho I'm in a different climate and can't garden the way you do. One thing for warmer areas that's different from where you are is that many cole crops and pac choy/bok choy in particular, they'll bolt once the temperatures get above 80*F/26.6*C, even if they're still very small, so they're best planted in the fall if you want them to get large, tho the flower buds are edible as raab and delicious, but if it's hotter than 80*F, they're not really worth planting, they bolt so fast. I'm trying the leaf type cabbage for the first time this year, I hope it's as good in this warmer climate as it is where you live! I'm most looking forward to my pole beans this year. I've been growing 'algarve' and it's tender and delicious even when the beans are very big. Also my cucumbers do OK in the shade here, I had some volunteer in the asparagus patch last summer and climb up the ferns and they produced pretty well considering the drought we had.

[@myrrhidian3166]

We use the turf flipping method for planting potatoes too. Instead of burying the seed potatoes, we just leave them on the surface of the flipped sod and then mulch heavily with dry grass, and for the amount of effort you put in you get a surprisingly decent yield, though I think our yield would have been larger had we been more attentive with watering and adding more mulch throughout the summer. I learned about this method first from the Back to Reality YT channel, they have an in depth video on it.

[@Atimatimukti]

I'm in Portugal where the weather is obvious diferent and we cant sow most of the brassicas in may. But we do have several of those cabbages with high stems and big leaves. Look for Penca de Mirandela, Penca de Chaves, Coivao and Galega. The last two are the highest ( some can get to 2m very easy)

[@Pickles6115]

I cover my carrot seeds with either straw or newspaper . Water them really good and a light watering after covering them. Happy gardening my fellow gardeners💕.

[@jeannamcgregor9967]

I will never not plant purple sprouting broccoli again! Both shoots and leaves are edible and it just keeps producing. Love it!

[@theuglykwan]

Sowing pak choi in may is ill advised. Asian brassicas will bolt as the day lengthens. The longest day is 21st june. So sow after that. Otherwise you will only have baby plants before they bolt. You won't get the full month of may plus 21 days, it will bolt long before that. Growing them in spring is possible but you need to start early and have a good spring. They can do fine in a greenhouse. They still won't get as big as they will bolt prematurely but can still get to decent size, especially if you choose a faster variety.

[@ofrecentvintage]

Oh wow! What a helpful tip! This must be what happened to my bok choy/pechay last spring. I couldn't figure out what I'd done wrong to make them bolt from the seedling stage. I'm going to try your timing suggestion. Thank you so much!

[@SiljeMeum]

So I subscribe to quite a few channels, and I can't keep up with all of them.. I always have time for the new Huw Richards videos though. Today me and the kids have sown an assortment of colored radished, mangold and peas in the garden, and I'll aim to plant som Asian cabbages and chinese chives too. Thank you so much, I love my book so much and will definately save up to aquire the collection.

[@ohio_gardener]

Mid-May is the beginning of the gardening season here in SW Ohio, with the last frost date being May 15th. The cool weather crops such as Kale, Spinach, and the brassicas are already in the garden, but the tender crop seedlings such as tomato, pepper, and eggplant are growing in the greenhouse waiting on the weather. The squash are started indoors in late-May for transplanting outdoors in mid- to late-June after the squash bugs have moved on.

[@ofrecentvintage]

I'm in NY with a last frost date of May 10th. I was planning to start my squashes now bc of the length of my warm weather growing season. I can't imagine planning to transplant in late June bc of that but I would like to wait out the squash bugs, as you mention. Do you grow certain varieties of squash that safely mature within your season? Would you mind suggesting a few? Thank you!

[@ohio_gardener]

@@ofrecentvintage In addition to the summer squash, I grow several winter squash varieties such as Butternut, Red Kuri, and Cushaw -- they have maturity dates of around 100 days, so planting in mid- to late June gives me 3 1/2 months before the first frost.

[@ofrecentvintage]

@@ohio_gardener Thank you for your response! I'm going to give this timing a try.

[@nancynesytofreske]

Thanks for the tip on waiting for the squash bugs to move on. I thought they were always around, good to know I can wait a bit! I struggle growing any squash other than butternut because of them.

[@ohio_gardener]

@@nancynesytofreske You are correct that the larva are in the soil, but when the adult emerges it immediately starts looking for plants to lay eggs on. If there are no plants, it moves over to the neighbors garden looking for plants. The key is the timing of when the adults emerge in your area - determine that date and then plant afterwards.

[@steveryan8639]

Great advice about winter veg... please continue making these videos!

[@chezelleconroy2951]

I flippin love the drone shots of your beautiful garden. Thank you again for a great video- watching in November here in Australia 🇦🇺

[@CurlyProverbz]

Been waiting on this…. No month like May! Cannot wait to try some new summer squash varieties. Thanks Huw

[@leonleese4919]

Sprout tops are delicious after you’ve picked al the sprouts…. Waste not want not. 😉

[@Braisin-Raisin]

I grew a few potatoes (seed potatoes) 4 years ago - not in the best soil. They did very well and I dug them up, thinking that was it. But the following year, I had even more potatoes and I had planted none. I dug them up, gave a lot away since I am on my own and there is only so much I can eat. Last year a lot of them rotted since we had very wet weather. This year, again, I have potatoes growing all over the place (not in my main kitchen garden). Will be interesting if the voles left me some unchewed ones and if the weather is dry enough to get some good spuds.This year I simply was tired of the consatant fight against all sorts of flying insects chewing my crops, so I bought somethinbg that looks like fly-cloth but is a bit stronger. For the first time ever, I have beatiful, unchewed leaves on the radishes, lettuce, cabbage family seedling and arugula. Not a huge crop yet but I am so happy to see that I protected my plants that I worked for so hard and it was really easy! I cut the "fabric" into suitable strips, tie each end with a zip-tie and clip this to the raised bed with plastic clips, erecting first arches with plastic tubes made for electric cables, with one across the top to heold it secure with clips (they can be bought for 16 mm tubes - not expensive). So quick, so easy, so effective. Dismantling is easy and all can be used year after year. Also, weed seeds do not come through the net. Only if you need insect polination, you have to remove the net. I do not grow tomatoes underneath this.

[@darcyroyce]

Some very useful advice for substituting kale as I don't like it at all. Instead, I love cabbage,bok choi, greens, and will try the broccoli leaves as well. Love fennel, and anything aniseed tasting. I had no idea there's cabbage variety that only grows leaves so quite intrigued by that😮😍

[@steveryan8639]

I need to find seeds for the tree cabbage!

[@bellelacroix5938]

Awesome. Thank you.

[@lizpalmer5804]

I love fennel & would love to be able to grow it as supermarket prices have shot up - £5 a bulb in Sainsbury's! But I've failed for the last 4 years - either lack of germination (indoors & out) or when I've got past that hurdle they've failed to bulb up & have gone to seed. Any tips welcome.

[@khoitran2380]

Hi Huw, love all your video clips. Being a beginner gardener, I have adopted many of your ideas which are so valuable for my new hobby. However as I’m from Melbourne Australia, our seasons are different to yours as such it would be good if you can include what season in your talks rather than just June or July etc… I have to keep checking what month/season you are referring to. Other than that.. thank you for all your tips.

[@keepcalmandmakememories8167]

Goodness.been watching few of your videos recently all I thought you live in US...much more excited now to watch your other videos now realizing we live in same country/planting zone..😃..I'm on my third yr of gardening more on trial and error as I am planting few challenging asian veges too.

[@bethannlawrence4512]

Does this mean that you aren't going to do potatoes in buckets this year? I've been curious how your experiment sowing potatoes in buckets last year went. I haven't seen a follow up video on that. I was surprised to see you recommend sowing in the ground today since you seemed pretty excited about the buckets. Would love to know more details about how things turned out and whether you're doing a variety of potato planting methods or switching to the in ground method.

[@Ed19601]

I still have pumpkins in storage

[@thatgirlthatgrows]

Love these videos, so helpful! Thank you!

[@johnlord8337]

All depends on whether you are growing in AUZ/NZ Fall/Winter land ... or our Euro-US northern hemisphere of April/May Spring-Summer ... !!! Succession planting happens all through Spring, Summer, Fall.

[@AndreaDingbatt]

Thank you so much for making and sharing your videos!! I'm really late for planting out my new garden... Or so I thought!! Thank you for the ideas and enthusiasm!! Much appreciated these ideas, ~ and I will certainly be trying many of these myself this year!! Andréa and Critters. ... XxX.... Ps, I am a bit later than usual starting in the garden, to be honest, But,as I am recovering from Chemo and Pneumonia, ~ I admit that I have been feeling just a bit rough!!

[@helenfielding7870]

It isn't "late". Go for it!

[@cathywilliamson2383]

Been having to wait to plant because of all the rain here

[@Matt-fl8uy]

Watching this is like if Chris Evans is a gardner.

[@stephaniepearce3308]

Is this good for North Carolina?

[@freedombug11]

Captain America ain't got nothin' on Huw.

[@ChrisLambert-Yngvegodi]

Sowing the squash, as in seeds or planting out? I've had many frosts wipe my plants out before when I was trying to harden them off.

[@TanjaHermann]

Great information, Huw. I just wish you would turn down the music volume. It's really difficult to follow your voice and get all that good information.

[@edwardhammock24]

Lol, 8:17 prompted a sudden check on which fennel seeds I'm growing. Bulb. Phew. 😂😂

[@AJMG-cn3tu]

man Huw you could feed tons of folk with a garden that size.

[@christinamartinhellohope]

Hello Huw, I love your videos. When you're talking about sowing, do you mean direct sowing or starting off in pots? I live in West Wales.

[@reneegreen8708]

Where can i buy the Australian Tree Cabbage?

[@CindyOrangeNeely]

I'd like to know too!

[@moragpotter4609]

Real Seeds sell seeds for Asturian Tree Cabbage

[@CindyOrangeNeely]

@@moragpotter4609 thank you!!!

[@najum6018]

Where can I get tree cabbage please

[@hoosierpioneer]

My winters are just too frozen to keep crops in ground. It freezes to a minimum of 2 ft deep, no matter what cover used, or in the tunnel. Have to freeze or can for winter here. If only...

[@aimeestauffer2844]

Same here

[@lindabuchan5855]

Never knew you got purple pak choi

[@freedombug11]

Does this in-ground potato method count as an exception to your no-dig philosophy?

[@suew000]

Huw,what are we going to use next year in the uk as the government are banning peat?

[@freedombug11]

I don't think Huw uses peat anyway!

[@katrin462]

Get a hot composter and make your own compost for growing, from your kitchen and garden waste!

[@HuwRichards]

Never used peat

[@christajennings3828]

I take it there aren't gophers in the UK. I can't plant anything in the open ground, especially nor something like potatoes. Every bit will be eaten by gophers.

[@davidjhannington9406]

Personally, I can't stand aniseed. My allotment, is covered in fennel. It grows like mad!

[@KESHAVTHAKUR282]

Varinder singh

[@andreahodson7031]

is it true that carrots need a sandy soil?

[@HuwRichards]

No, I don't have sandy soil and can grow them well

[@vitamartinenko4747]

🌱💪🏼

[@annlyle8348]

❤🎉

[@freedombug11]

Does "rocket" mean arugula, or is rocket a variety of arugula?

[@HelenRullesteg]

Yes, rocket means arugula 🙂

[@one_field]

Sarpo mira is such a cool potato variety. Thanks for mentioning it again; you reminded me to order seed potatoes! Any idea if the flowers on sarpo mira are self- compatible? I would love to save True Potato Seed from them and see what other goodies are stored in those genetics.

[@socorroflores2455]

subtitulos en español por favor.😊😊😊

[@a_l_e_k_sandra]

I did not understand, did he say that May is late for sowing tomatoes, peppers and eggplants???

[@HuwRichards]

Yes he did, at least too late for bumper yields

[@lg2352]

Better finish sowing mine today then - last day of April. I'm sure they'll soon catch up :)

[@milkshake3350]

Sowed my tomato seeds in early April indoors, they've be very slow to get going and now I've given up hope. Its been a dull, early spring and unless you have a heated greenhouse or at least a heat mat and extra lighting you're often going to miss the boat with things like tomatoes. This is all well and good Hew but unless you have the resources it's very hit and miss.

[@a_l_e_k_sandra]

I'm sowing my tomatoes directly, around the time I notice my volunteers popping up around, and that time is now. Without transplantation stress, they often do much better than those that were started early indoors. I have mostly clay soil which I amend with compost and my area correspond to zones 6 and 7, so my out of the window late tomatoes produce until November.

[@claudiaknecht1315]

Interesting video, like always! I want to thank you that you stopped with the advertisements for other products during yr videos. I would suggest on the other hand, that you put down a link in yr box below, how the watchers of yr videos can support yr work. I am not into buying things anymore, so a link to a f.e. Paypal account could encourage people to support you without having to buy something that they don’t need, which happens a a certain age 😉

[@KESHAVTHAKUR282]

Strub. Orn