What to Plant in May for Your Kitchen Garden
We’ve definitely entered our warm season! If you planted a spring garden full of leafy greens, climbing peas, root veggies, and herbs, then you should notice things have really taken off. Get out there and harvest every day if you can! Enjoy the fruits (or leaves) of your labor.
In my garden, the broccoli rabe and bok choy have already bolted! They got a taste of the warm weather and sent their little yellow flowers up. No broccoli for me this year, but I did enjoy the broccoli leaves chopped up in my stir fry and omelettes. Now I’m harvesting loads of spinach, lettuce, mustard greens, cilantro, and kale.
As cool season crops finish up this month, I’m pulling them out and replacing them with warm season plants. My bolted bok choy was replaced with anise hyssop, a lovely flowering native that brings all the pollinators to the yard and can be used for tea. The broccoli rabe was replaced with lacinato kale, which can survive the summer with adequate watering.
Best Plants to Add to Your Kitchen Garden in May
Herbs: Basil, lavender, marjoram, oregano, sage, rosemary, thyme
Leaves: Arugula, collards, kale, malabar spinach, mizuna, mustard greens, swiss chard
Roots: Radish (they can finish by the end of the month before it gets too hot)
Fruits: Bush bean, cucumber, eggplant, melons, peppers, pole beans, squash, tomatoes, zucchini
Flowers: Angelonia, anise hyssop (native), coreopsis (native), echinacea (native), marigold, nasturtium, strawflower, zinnia
Some new varieties I’m trying in my garden this month are asparagus bean, cucamelon, cucuzzi squash, and malabar spinach.
Best Seeds to Direct Sow in Your Garden in May
From the list above, I would direct sow (plant as seed directly in the garden) the following: arugula, collards, mizuna, mustard greens, radish, bush beans, cucumber, melons, pole beans, squash, zucchini, nasturtium, and zinnia.
Best Plants to Transplant Out to the Garden in May
I recommend buying all of the herbs (basil, lavender, marjoram, oregano, sage, rosemary, thyme) from a nursery. They take a long time to grow from seed with the exception of basil.
As for kale, chard, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, and most of the flowers (angelonia, anise hyssop (native), coreopsis (native), echinacea (native), marigold, strawflower), I would transplant seedlings that I started from seeds indoors (back in February or March) or buy them from a local nursery.
Timing is one of the keys to garden success.
You may know our frost dates, but did you know we have three growing seasons in the DMV? Download this guide to our local growing seasons so you can save time and money by planting the right plants at the right time.
