Which vegetables can be planted this month?

 


Hi, I'm new to growing vegetables & need a little help. I've got a good
sized veggie patch, with raised drills containing farmyard manure & a
top layer of compost. Last weekend I planted carrots and lettuce which
my dad assured me would be fine at this time of year. I have seeds for
cucumber, corgettes, corn, beetroot, red onion (bulbs), pumpkins etc.
I'd also like to grow cherry tomatoes but I'm at a complete loss as to
how to start them successfully.

Also, I would like to grow a few blackberries & rasberries but I'm not
sure of the best place to purchase the plants. I saw plants in a local
'Instore' the instructions said the roots should be soaked in water for
an hour before planting, but would these particular plants be of enough
quality & would I see any fruit this year?

I live in Northern Ireland, so I don't want to plant anything too early
and risk any unwelcome weather. However, most people I've spoken too
think April is the right time to plant most things.

Sorry to sound so clueless, I'm just a student who wants to make use of
the land I have at home & hopefully get some delicious vegetables some
time in the future!

Thanks.




--
Freedom_Spark

 


*snip*


The most important thing is your last frost date.  Last night, here in
Illinois (US) it got down to 26F degrees.  This should be the last of the
cold until fall, but I'm not holding my breath.  My garden's prepared,
but I haven't planted anything yet.
 

Don't worry about being clueless.  You'll probably learn more the first
three years of gardening than you will the next three.  I'm happy to
answer questions, especially beginner ones here (because I might know the
answer! lol)
 

You're welcome.

Puckdropper
--
You can only do so much with caulk, cardboard, and duct tape.

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm

 

Freedom_Spark said:

Beets and onions could also be started outdoors now, along with the
lettuce and carrots.

The tomatoes should be started indoors now, for transplant outside
later, after the days are consistantly warms and night time temperatures
will reliably be above 50F (10C) degrees.  Give them plenty of light,
and gradually acclimatize them to being out in the sun.  They can
be transplanted outdoors once the night time temperatures are
consistantly

Corn would come next (outdoors) when soil temperatures are
consistantly above 50F (10C).  Where I live, usually I can start
planting corn in early- to mid- May.  (Planting when "the oak leaves
are the size of squirrel's ears" is the old phenomonological rule.)

Cucumbers, courgettes and pumpkins would be seeded only after the
weather was consistantly warm.  (Where I live, very late May.)


Starting with bare-root plants is commonly done.  Even with potted
plants, you shouldn't  expect to be harvesting a crop of berries this
year, though.  Most varieties of raspberries and blackberries have a
pattern of growing new canes this year which will bear fruit next year.  

--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)
  
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)

 



My book (Gardener's Bible) says ground temp should be 70F (20C).
Corn needs ground temp of 80F for germination and 65F-75F to grow.
But these temps work for you. Hmmm.

The Murder of Rachel Corrie
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1248.shtml

 

Billy said:

Kiewicz.newsgroups.comcast.net>,


For germination?  Or for transplanting outdoors?  I'd agree with that
as a tomato germination temperature.

When the night time temperatures are consistantly above 50F here,
the daytime temps average in the mid-70s and above.  Plenty warm
enough to transplant tomatoes out.  (Wait a bit more for peppers and
eggplants, though.)


Corn *needs* a ground temp of 80F for germination?  I think you
are confusing maybe optimum with minimum.   I can guarantee that
the soil temp is nowhere near 80F when I seed my earliest corn
(anywhere after May 10, usually).   The daily mean air temp is
nearing 60F in mid-May.

I'm pretty conservative.  The farmer's start seeding corn before me.
Corn would be a heap more expensive (and the corn belt much, much
smaller) if you had to wait until ground temps were 80F.

Grr.  I can't remember the term for using the sequence of blooms and
such to 'tell time' ("when the Forsythia bloom" "when the oak leaves
are the size of squirrels' ears" etc.)    

Got it! Phenology!  Some of it is maybe bogus (predicting weather
months in advance) but the use of it to set planting dates ("potatoes
when the shadbush blooms") actually coresponds pretty well with all
the 'degree days accumulated' figures as guidelines to local conditions.

Anyway, things are running late this year (locally) compared to the
last  few years, based on blooms and buds.  Or maybe I should say,
back to the 'old normal' this year.

I keep an eye on the oak trees and sycamores (that'd be plane trees,  
to those  across the Atlantic) to cue me in to how any particular
spring is going.  Once the sycamores finally begin leafing out, the
weather will be reliably warm.

--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)
  
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)