Free veg seeds 2024 – May

May. The cold memories of winter replaced by the promise of summer evenings pottering around our green spaces. It’s a non-stop, exciting month in the garden as the risk of frost has passed in the UK, she says confidently! But that means all those seedlings you’ve been nurturing in the greenhouse and on windowsills can finally be planted out and seeds sown directly into the soil.

I've been growing vegetables and flowers across our garden and allotment for 15 years, and this year I'm growing the free edible seeds that come with Gardeners’ World Magazine. I'll be sharing my advice on starting seeds as well as my experiences on plants we’re growing on.

• Click here for details of which seeds you can look forward to receiving when.
• Get growing advice now, for all 12 packs of free seeds.
• Check out flower grower Cel Robertson's top tips for your May free flower seeds

I always remember when my sister, a talented chef, said the one herb she couldn’t be without was parsley. I was quite convinced she was wrong – that basil was the indisputable Queen of herbs. However, as I’ve grown more adventurous in the kitchen I’ve seen the error of my ways and am acknowledging she was right. Just don’t let her read this.

You can’t beat a salad of chopped parsley and mint, mixed with tomatoes, cucumber, lemon and garlic. Plus it’s full of vitamin C and iron, and a firm favourite of our chickens too. We actually have a rescue hen called Parsley for that very reason.

Parsley (the herb) is easy to grow in containers or borders. It likes moist soil with good drainage and will happily grow even in part shade. It’s great for small spaces – I’ll be growing across containers and in beds at our allotment to show you how versatile it is. In containers I’ll fill a 10cm pot with peat-free multipurpose compost and sow seeds thinly on the surface, before covering lightly and keeping somewhere warm.

At the allotment I’ll thinly sow seeds into drills that are 1cm deep. I’m aiming to sow a small row every two to three weeks so I have a constant supply of parsley. In all honesty, some years I’m really successful with succession sowing, while others it can be a challenge around the juggles of small children and life – so let’s see what the growing year of 2024 brings!

Parsley is slow to germinate, taking up to six weeks. At a time of year when other seedlings emerge within days, don’t be disheartened. I recommend you pop the date you sowed the seeds on the name label, to encourage patience!

• How to sow seeds indoors
• How to sow seeds direct outdoors
• Monty's gardening jobs for May

Seedlings updates

Rocket update

On the whole, it’s been a slow start for our edibles over here. While April had some sunny days, the night-time temperatures stayed cold and our garden and allotment are a few weeks behind where we were last year. I’m delighted to report the slugs didn’t feast on the newly planted-out rocket, though I have had to cover it with a homemade mesh screen to protect it from the birds having a nibble.

We’re not harvesting it yet, but it’s growing well so hopefully we’ll be picking the first leaves soon. I’ve just mulched around the plants to suppress any weeds which grow infuriatingly fast at this time of year.

Basil update

The second sowing of basil has been potted on (after the disastrous first attempt), and I’ve sown another tray which is outperforming all others. It’s important to make sure basil doesn’t dry out as the leaves wilt quickly (from experience!). If you’re growing in a greenhouse then don’t get caught out by the fluctuation in temperatures at this time of year. I’m trying to get into the habit of always having a full watering can in the greenhouse so there’s one to hand when I’m walking past quickly.

Tomato update

The 'Sunbaby' tomato seedlings have been my top-performing edible so far. After a speedy germination they were potted into 5-8cm pots when their true leaves emerged, and they now need to be potted on again.

They’re now at the stage where I need to support their stems, which I’ll do so using a small stick and some twine. I’ll grow them on in this pot before hopefully planting them into their final container where they’ll grow for the summer in our greenhouse. Any ‘leggy’ seedlings can be buried up to their first set of leaves for a stronger plant.

Beetroot update

And finally, the beetroot seeds sown last month at the allotment are popping up. In the next few weeks I’ll thin any seedlings out to 10cm to allow better growing space.

Every year I think I’ve sown them thinly enough, and yet always turn out to have been overly enthusiastic – I’ll blame my repeated mistake on how exciting a time it is to be in the garden.