Gardening Jobs For May

Modified on Wed, 30 Apr at 9:30 AM

It’s Going To Be A Bushy Month In The Garden… Let’s Dive Right In!

May is one of the most exciting months in the gardening calendar – everything suddenly bursts into life, and it’s all hands on deck to keep up! With longer days, rising temperatures and plants growing at full tilt, there’s plenty to keep even the most casual gardener busy. Welcome to your gardening jobs for May…

Now’s the time to get your climbing plants tied in, hanging baskets planted up, and any straggly spring growth tidied away to make room for summer stars.

Beds and borders are filling out fast, so a little weeding, mulching and staking now will make all the difference later on. It’s also a brilliant month for planting in pots – think colourful displays for patios, balconies and doorsteps.

Certain trees and shrubs can benefit from a late spring prune, and the kitchen garden will be getting into full swing too, with plenty to sow, plant and pick. So grab your tools – May’s gardening to-do list is a satisfying one.

Beds and Borders

Hopefully by May there will be little sign of a winter hangover in your garden, but there is still plenty of gardening to do!
Tidy up any worn-out hellebores. Cut off flowering stems of stinking hellebore at ground level.
Many perennials will flop by mid-summer, so make your plants sturdier by giving them the ‘Chelsea Chop’ – this is a technique carried out by nurserymen at the end of May. Plants, such as Rudbeckia, Helenium, and Sedum can be cut back by half, this will result in bushier plants that will flower slightly later.
If you have been extra cautious with your exotic and tender plants, now is the time to remove their frost protection. Bananas, tree ferns and palms are now actively growing, and fleece or other insulating material will hamper the new growth.
Prevent the spent flower heads of lupins, delphiniums and other early flowering perennials turning to seed by cutting them back to a set of leaves with secateurs.
Thin out crowded delphiniums, leaving 5-7 shoots on established plants to improve final flowers.

Hanging Baskets

If you haven’t already prepared your hanging basket displays and stored them away in your greenhouse, then now is the time to plant them up with garden ready plants or plugs you’ve grown on yourself – and we have all the plants that you need for the job!
Fill your basket ¾ of the way with some Premium Professional Compost then make little wells in the soil where you want to plant your plugs. Place the rootballs into the wells, then add a few scoops of Swell Gel & Feed containing water-absorbing crystals and slow-release fertiliser, before covering the top of the rootball with compost and secure in with your fingers.
Water in well, then hang!

Plants in Pots

Pull up any wallflowers, violas, and other spring bedding plants as their flowers fade. Chop them up and add to compost heaps.
Water your plants well in the morning so they have a good supply that will last all day – avoid watering during the day as splashes on foliage could become scorched in the sun.
Mulch the surface of pots with gravel, grit, crushed glass or another decorative material to reduce moisture loss and prevent any weeds from growing.
Move pot-bound shrubs or perennials into larger containers, this will ensure they grow healthily. Generally, plants will need re-potting annually, but you can check this by lifting them out of their container – if all you can see is a mass of roots, they will be in need a new pot.

Trees and Shrubs

Overgrown or untidy evergreen shrubs? Restore their shape by pruning out any offending branches. Cutting in late spring will give plants plenty of time to produce new growth that will ripen before cool weather sets in later in the year.
For a great display of flower next year, deadhead lilacs when the flowers fade. To do this, wait until you see two shoots beneath the spent bloom start to swell, then snip off the flower head just above them with secateurs.
Lightly prune pieris when the flowers fade – cut back lanky shoots and remove any diseased growth.

In the Kitchen Garden

No gardening list for May would be complete without a trip to the kitchen garden…
Sow sweetcorn seeds in pairs, place them 2.5cm deep and 45cm apart. Water them well and after germination, thin each pair to leave the strongest seedling.
Earth up potatoes once stems are about 22cm tall, this will prevent developing spuds turning green. Draw up soil, leaving 10cm of growth showing.
Sow seeds of French beans, cabbages, runner beans, kale, and carrots outside. For summer salads, try radish, salad leaves and spring onions.
Pinch out tops of broad beans to prevent an infestation of black bean aphid, which is attracted to tender young shoot tips.
Feed tomato plants weekly with a fertiliser high in potash to help the fruit swell. Tie in stems and remove side-shoots, as necessary.
Remove the central flower spike from clumps of rhubarb to ensure the plant continues to produce stems for harvesting.

Tidy up rows of raspberry canes by pulling up shoots that are too far away to be tied in easily.
Remove every other fruit on gooseberry plants to ensure those that remain have plenty of space to swell up.
Keep a close eye out for caterpillar-like, sawfly larvae on gooseberries and currants. Causing rapid and severe defoliation of plants, they can be controlled by spraying with pesticides containing pyrethrum.
Make sure you are keeping your young fruit trees well-watered, as this is when they will really start to grow.

Our Top Tips For May Gardening!

Get Climbing…

Growing beautiful clematis, roses, honeysuckle, or other climbers in your garden? Be sure to secure any wayward stems to prevent them from snapping in any strong winds and depriving you of a vertical show of summer blooms.

Prune early flowering clematis as the blooms start to fade. If your climbers have outgrown their space, keep them within their bounds by pruning the stems above the leaf joint.

Fill your garden with scent this summer by planting sweet peas in a sunny spot against a trellis or other supports. If you forgot to sow seeds earlier this year, buy some ready-grown plants. Read on, for your must-do gardening tips and chores for this May.

What gardening tasks are you planning this May? Share your pictures, ideas, and plans with us and others on our dedicated customer Facebook page here!