In May we’ll be doing a lot of planting out of the young plants that we’ve been cultivating for the last couple of months. By the middle of the month, we can be pretty much guaranteed that we’ll have seen the last of any late frosts in our part of the country, so all of the tender plants can go out this month.

As is always the case, the plants on windowsills are looking huge, but once they go out, will look tiny.  These aubergines are over 20cm tall, but we’ll be potting them on once more before they get planted out in a couple of weeks.

Aubergines nearly ready for planting

Most of the standard summer crops – tomatoes, peppers, courgettes and aubergines – can be grown in containers as well as in open ground. A large pot filled with a mix of a soil-based and multi-purpose compost will give enough root space for these types of plants to develop healthy roots and grow strongly enough to fruit well. In addition to occupying little space, an advantage of pots is that they can be moved around to maximise the light as the seasons change. It is important to provide some support for tomatoes, peppers and aubergines otherwise they will tend to flop as fruit develops and the plants become top heavy. Courgettes tend to have more of a scrambling habit so spread horizontally.

For even smaller spaces tumbling tomatoes and small chilli peppers can be grown very successfully in hanging baskets.

Tomatoes in a hanging basket (in July)

The summer crops will still be a couple of months away from harvesting, but other crops will be coming into their own. We should still be harvesting asparagus and maybe getting the first peas, beetroot and the early potatoes that we started in the greenhouse.