May is a month of glorious anticipation in the garden, nice long days, a fair amount of sunshine and plants growing at a fast pace. Huge rewards are reaped from any garden tasks that are done this month, so lets press on.
Hardy annuals:
please sow some hardy annual seeds, they can be sown directly onto garden soil in a sunny spot right where you want them to flower and in a few weeks you’ll be rewarded with flowers for cutting or to admire as you sit in the garden witha cuppa, try some of these:
- sunflowers
- ammi majus – looks like cow parsley, but better behaved
- cornflowers
- poppies- lots of different types and colours
- calendula-english marigolds
- night-scented stock-delicious scent
poppies
ammi majus
Watering
this needs doing if it doesn’t rain for a couple of days, most plants need warmth and water at this stage and seedlings need watering every day. Shrubs & trees planted during the last year need watering regularly until they’ve grown a good rooot system
Weeding
keep this up to catch them before they flower and spread their seeds everywhere, multiplying before your eyes.
Harden-off tender plants
like dahlias and everything else that’s been grown on window sillls and in greenhouses, this is the process of toughening-up before they live outside permanently. This usually happens at the end of the month in the south-east when I’m sure there won’t be a frost.
seedlings growing on the window-sill
Softwood cuttings
this is a method of making plants from the soft new spring growth of deciduous plants, it’s easy because everything is programmed to grow at this time of year. Use plants like delphineum, asters, salvia including the sage family of plants.
Keep adding to the compost heap
kitchen waste, thogh not cooked food and soft greenery from the garden, avoiding weeds will Saves unnecesary watse going to landfill when it could all decompose into lovely rich compost.
Snip spent flowers from spring flowering bulbs
like daffodils and tulips, so that the energy goes into building up the bulb for next year, rather than into seed production.
I’m looking forward to writing here about The Chelsea Flower Show which swings into action at the end of the month, still excited about this after all these years.
Read about how to sow hardy annuals here, how to harden-off plants here.
Happy gardening
Jill
all photos: Jill Anderson
Just found you today 15/05/15, great information. I am a new gardener & i am learning a lot.
Hi Robert, thanks for your comment, it’s always nice to inspire new gardeners. I hope you find plenty more useful information on the site. Jill