It's been an odd start to May, the last frost (we hope) and even ice on the children paddling pool and then to 20°C a few days later.
But what a bank holiday weekend...finally!
May is the month the garden really gets going, the bushy green growth of the hardy geraniums and salvias are getting ready to burst into colour, the honesty brightening up the cottage borders and the rhubarb the best I have known in years. The tulips, blossom and magnolia were a joy to behold and lasted longer than usual with the kind weather.
Sow/Plant:
Sow beetroot, carrots, salad, radish, direct
and courgette, sweetcorn, broccoli, kale, sprouts under cover.
Thin previous sowings.
Keep sowing annuals, perennials.
Sow runner/green beans now under cover.
Start earthing up potatoes.
Plant summer flowering bulbs - last chance!
Harden off and plant out annuals and dahlias.
Harvest:
Asparagus, rhubarb, chard, spinach, lettuce, radish, first carrots.
Secateurs jobs:
Deadhead choisya after flowering for a late
summer show.
Prune forsythia, daphne, hypericum, mahonia after flowering.
Chelsea chop later flowering perennials.
Cut comfrey to the ground to encourage more flowers later on.
Support:
Start to tie in clematis, climbing and rambling
roses and honeysuckle.
Stake perennials before they grow too much.
Start netting soft fruit.
Keep an eye out for saw fly especially on gooseberries. Make bean and sweeties wigwams/teepees.
Mulch:
Weed borders and raised beds and add lots
of organic matter to improve the soil ready
for sowing!
Ideally add 2 inches worth to help suppress
the weeds.
Top dress pots.
Mulch strawberries with straw to protect the fruit
Lawns:
Get cutting, we're down to a weekly schedule here
now after all the rain and sun.
Start feeding.
Get sowing and planting with the crazy hope of the abundant veg and flowers that will come.