Top Tips for the Garden in May
There are lots of summer bedding plants for sale this month. Plan your colour schemes and choose from the wide variety available. Remember to protect the plants from late frost, with horticultural fleece or by moving them under cover when frost threatens. Our ten top tips for May are:
- Sow Runner Beans and French Beans in pots at the beginning of the month, so that they are established enough to plant out once threat of frost is past. Dig the Runner Bean trench and put some well rotted manure in the base, covering it over with the soil.
- Main-crop potatoes can be planted as soon as possible this month and ‘earlies’ should be earthed up as the shoots appear, to protect from any late frosts.
- Remember to stake tall growing perennials in your borders before they get too high. Visit your local garden centre to choose from the range of staking systems available from plastic covered hoops to bamboo canes.
- Herbaceous perennials will give colour for years in your borders, so visit your local garden centre and choose from the range available to extend the season of Summer interest.
- Prune early flowering Brooms (Cytisus praecox) by one third as soon as they have finished flowering, removing the seed pods to encourage new shoots that will support flowers next year.
- There is still time to apply a weed and feed preparation to your lawn. If the weather is dry, water the lawn well after the application, following the manufacturer’s recommendations. Remember not to compost the treated grass clippings.
- Your local garden centre will be well-stocked with Summer bedding plants, so visit to choose from the selection for your containers, baskets and borders. Why not treat yourself to some new containers at the same time?
- Take softwood cuttings of plants such as Catmint, Penstemon and Phlox to increase your stocks or renew older plants. Use a rooting powder and open compost, mixed with vermiculite or perlite to ‘strike’ the cuttings.
- Keep an eye on climbers and tie-in the vigorous new growths to supports as they grow. Make sure that they do not go short of water, as they are often in the rain shadow of the house or a fence.
- If you have newly planted areas of your garden, why not sow some hardy annuals to fill the gaps with Summer colour until the permanent planting establishes? Choose from the seed available at your local garden centre. Virginia Stocks, Candytuft and Love-in-a-Mist are all old favourites.