What Seasonal Fruit & Veg Can Be Harvested In UK In May? Hungry Gap, Use Your Imagination To Beat It. What Are You Harvesting in May?
Table of Contents
Of course much depends on your location, soil type and microclimate. Wet seasons will generally be later than dryer warmer seasons and using a greenhouse, polytunnel or crop protection fleece is going to maker a huge difference.
How to Grow Lettuce, From Butterhead to Cos
Alexanders (young stems and leaves)
Alliums … Welsh onion, chives, Egyptian walking onions, spring onions, perennial leeks, leeks, plus more below!
Asparagus
Beetroot
Broad Beans (becoming available from mid May)
Cabbage, mainly Hispi types
Cardoons
Carrot
Chickweed
Claytonia (Miner’s Lettuce)
Dandelion (leaves and flowers)
Fiddleheads (Ostrich Fern Shoots) – likely at the very end of their season now
Hairy bittercress
Garlic Scapes (young, curly flower stalks of garlic)
Good King Henry
Ground Elder (young leaves)
Herbs: sage, rosemary, bay leaves etc.
Kohlrabi (early sowings)
Lambs Lettuce (Mâche)
Land Cress
Lettuce (various types)
Lovage (leaves)
Mint
Mibuna
Mizuna
Nettles, season end as they get tougher. Cut back hard niw the regrowth will be edible in a few months
Parsley
New Potatoes (earliest varieties, especially in warmer areas)
Radish (including mooli)
Rhubarb
Rocket
Rosehips (young shoots and leaves)
Salad burnett
Sea Beet (wild spinach)
Sorrel
Spinach
Spring Onions
Strawberries (very early, usually towards the end of May in warmer areas)
Swiss Chard
Tatsoi
Watercress
Wild Garlic (leaves and flowers) – likely at the very end of its season now.
MicroGreens, Baby Plants and Sprouted Seeds
There are also hundreds of sprouted seeds, micro greens and baby plants that can be grown indoors and harvested every month of the year. Don’t forget them to fill the hungry gap!
Key Considerations for May Harvests in the UK:
Transition Month: May is a transitional month, so you’ll see the tail end of some spring crops and the beginning of some early summer produce.
Early Produce: The availability of some items like new potatoes and strawberries will depend heavily on the specific variety and the weather conditions in your particular year and region of the UK. Warmer southern areas will likely see them slightly earlier.
Foraged Items: Plants like alexanders, chickweed, dandelion, fiddleheads, ground elder, sea beet, and wild garlic are prominent in spring and often extend into May. Their availability might start to decrease towards the end of the month as they mature.
Garlic Scapes: These are a unique seasonal treat in late spring/early summer.
So that’s my first stab at a list of fruit and veg in season in May. The list reflects what you might typically find in season in the UK but remember May is a transition month and the availability will vary greatly between month start and end. Check out the seasonal lists for each month as I write them over the coming year.
Please comment below if you see a gap in my list. I’m sure there are several things missing.
