Grow Your Own Magazine
Get May's issue of Grow Your Own now. Here's a taster of this month's tips and features
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Grow watercress, plant pumpkins and start sweet potatoes with Anne Swithinbank
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Your step-by-step to success with sweetcorn
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Break the rules with Sally Nex's guide to creative allotments
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GYO samples life as a smallholder at Devon's South Yeo Farm West
May 2012
Free seeds
Not one, not two but THREE packets of seeds are free with this month's GYO. Just check the front of your magazine to start sowing today. Crisp radish 'Sparkler 3' is a fast-growing crop with white-tipped roots. For a crunchy heart and sweet leaves try lettuce 'Little Gem'. Or, make a soup, salad or bake with Italian favourite, fennel 'Di Firenze'.
Allotment gardener
Make the most of longer, lighter evenings with one expert plot-holder's list of jobs for May. This month, the National Trust's Simon Akeroyd takes advantage of the changing clocks to make a wigwam for climbing beans. Late spring is also the time to choose this season's must-have tools. Simon kits himself out for the rest of the year with forks, spades, hoes and more.
Home-grown fruit
Yes, it's that time again! The first delicious home-grown strawberries are ripe and ready to pick. GYO editor Lucy Halsall gets stuck into her tasty new crop while thinning out raspberry canes. A quick spring clean will leave you with easily harvestable rows – follow her tips and hoik out suckers to keep your plants in order.
In depth runner beans
Your complete guide to growing an essential summer crop. Lucy Halsall teams up with Guy Barter from the RHS to take you through every stage from sowing to watering, feeding and harvesting runner beans. Learn how to train your plants and discover why over wintering old roots can lead to an extra-early crop next year.
Must-have mushrooms
Don't fancy foraging? Here's your chance to grow a delicious mushroom crop at home. Zoë Jong names the fungi most likely to tickle your taste buds. Discover the difference between white cap, oyster mushrooms and wood blewit then use her step-by-step guide to create your own crop-packed woodland bed.
Space savers
Sprouting seeds, microgreens and a salad bar. Who needs acres of space when you have a windowsill? From edible blooms to alpine strawberries, we reveal the easiest-to-grow crops for pots and compact spaces. Turn sunny spots into mini gardens with baby veg and scented herbs. Your window boxes will never be the same again!
