In the Vegetable Garden – May 2019

by Patty Leander
photos by Patty and Bruce Leander

The oak catkins came out with a vengeance last month, but fortunately we had spectacular wildflower displays to take our mind off the nasal misery and amber-coated vehicles. Dried oak tassels, like leaves, are a good source of organic matter. Sweep them, vacuum them, barter for them—the fewer that end up in the landfill, the better. Use as mulch in the vegetable garden or add them to the compost pile. Our warm weather vegetables seem to have gotten off to a slow start due to the cooler spring temperatures, but these lovely mild days have been perfect for digging, planting and relaxing outdoors. Let’s hope the transition to hot weather is just as slow and easy as the transition from winter to spring has been.

Here is the vegetable gardener’s checklist for May:

• Harvest a few tender new potatoes from the perimeter of potato plants. Carefully pull back soil and remove a few individual potatoes without disturbing the plant. The remaining tubers will continue to grow in size and can be harvested in late May or early June when the tops begin to yellow.
• Be on the lookout for squash vine borer eggs. Remove them as soon as you see them and treat the stems with a product containing Bt.
• Harvest onions when the tops begin to fall over, which usually happens toward the end of this month. Pull up the plants and spread them out to cure in a dry, shady spot for about a week. After curing, cut the tops off and store the onions to use as needed.
• Plant heat-lovers like sweet potatoes, Malabar spinach, okra, Southern peas and asparagus beans. Sweet potato slips are usually available from local garden centers; Southern peas and okra can be seeded directly in the garden.
• Keep up with weeds in the garden. They suck up water and nutrients that need to be available for fast-growing vegetables. Hoe or pull before they start producing seed and add them to the compost pile.
• Eggplant and pepper transplants can still be planted early this month. They may produce sporadically through the summer but you can count on them for an abundant fall harvest. Hot pepper varieties tend to produce all summer, even in the heat.

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