Country Life

Make this your best year in the vegetable garden

GARDENERS are born optimists, which is handy, because growing vegetables is a swings-and-roundabouts business. In one season, carrots and parsnips might excel, egged on by consistently warm days and nights, yet onions—which thrive in a damp, cool spring followed by a hot, dry summer —will turn out like marbles. The following year, things could well be reversed.

One thing we are pretty much guaranteed is that, by mid May, the ground will be warm and frosts on the wane. This is one of the reasons why our ancestors held such sway by May Day. The date is misleading, however, because when we adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, 11 days were lost and May Day jumped forward. In Oxfordshire, there is still a tradition of planting runner-bean seeds and other vegetables on Old May Day, about May 12 or 13. This, then, is the perfect time to up your game: order some different seeds, plant mixed rows of leaves, add some flowers. In short, ensure your

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