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As May rolls around and most of us wonder where the first few months of the year have gone, gardening experts have warned there’s no time to dwell on the past as they encourage people to get important jobs done before summer.
British gardeners Monty Don, Mick Lavelle and Sarah Raven revealed some of their top gardening tips in May so Brits can start creating the garden of their dreams once the sun gets a little more sunny.
If you want to get the most out of your flowers, you’re in luck: the vast majority can be planted this month.
Experts have also revealed that you can even start growing some delicious tomatoes and green beans at this time of year.
That said, there are also some less interesting parts to figure out, like taking off your gardening gloves and tackling stubborn weeds.
A pretty, colorful border of flowers and bushes surrounded by a fence and green grass (stock image)
flowers
An important garden job you can start in May if you want your perennials to go from strength to strength is planting borders and containers with annual flowers.
Examples of annual flowers (those that complete their life cycle in a single growing season) are cosmos, zinnias, and nasturtiums, all of which are very bright plants.
Some plants cannot tolerate cold weather, so wherever possible you should try to help them acclimatise before planting (a process known as hardening off), but wait until there is no longer any risk of frost.
Last May, BBC broadcaster Monty Don wrote in his Blog: ‘Hardening off is important and will mean much faster growth and longer lasting flowers.
“Don’t plant them immediately, but place them in a sheltered location for a week to acclimatize to your garden.”
Homes and Gardens experts also recommend considering the plant mix instructions to understand how different perennials should be spaced.
Orange zinnia flowers bloom in the garden (stock image)
It’s usually the beginning of the sunny season, but if you’re still feeling the chills, your plant will too, so plant your plants under cover if necessary.
Gardening expert Mick Lavelle, senior lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University, recommended using a windowsill to protect them from the cold if you don’t have a windowsill.
And you shouldn’t just focus on annuals: biennial plants, which complete their life cycle in two growing seasons, can also be planted in May to bloom the following year.
These include arctic poppies, sweet Williams and foxgloves.
Now that the bare root rose planting season (planting roses without soil around the root) ended in April, now is the time to purchase potted roses at your local garden center.
Tomatoes
Beautiful ripe red tomatoes grown in a greenhouse (stock image)
There are tons of jobs you can do this May to improve your garden.
Now is the time to start planting certain crops and you can even start thinking about protecting your crops from annoying pests.
By the end of May we should have overcome the last of the frosty mornings, which means we will be able to plant tomatoes, but Monty Don recommends hardening them off first.
In the same blog post from May 2023, the Gardener’s World host explained: ‘It’s time to plant tomatoes in a greenhouse, although wait until the end of the month for outdoor ones.
‘This is because tomatoes hate excessive temperature fluctuations and May nights can be cold, especially if the days are warm.
“Plant them deeply, burying them all the way to the bottom leaf, as the buried section of the stem will develop additional roots.”
He then advised avid gardeners to plant tomatoes deeply, as high as the bottom leaf, so that the buried stem would develop additional roots.
He explained that, as they grow, buds will form between the leaves and the stem, forming what we call lateral buds, which should be eliminated quickly since they reduce the overall harvest by taking energy away from the plant.
To remove them, all you need to do is break them with your index finger and thumb. It is better to do this in the morning, as the plant becomes softer and there is a risk of breaking the good part of the plant.
However, if you leave it until the evening, be sure to use a knife to carefully cut around the plant.
Beans
A bunch of green beans (file image)
Rising temperatures mean May is the perfect time to start sowing snap beans and runner beans, but start planting them secretly in early June.
Don’t forget to sow beans successively, so that you don’t have a surplus. Plant them biweekly is a good way to stagger the harvest.
Green beans and runner beans are economical to grow and can also be grown in small space-consuming pots, perfect if you have a smaller garden space.
For lettuce, you should sow seeds in succession, about once a week, to ensure you have a continuous supply in summer.
Sow lettuce seeds successively, once or twice a week, to ensure a continuous harvest throughout the summer.
You can also sow most domestic herbs in May, such as basil, cilantro, parsley, sage, and rosemary.
Sarah Raven said about her website: ‘Direct sow basil, especially next to tomato seedlings, to help keep whiteflies away from the fruit.’
Fight weeds
A radiant gardener holding a small gardening hoe in her hands as she pulls out weeds (file image)
While planting pretty flowers is an important part of gardening, you should also make sure your plot is free of weeds.
In May we have sun and rain, and that means weeds are abundant, so you need to keep up with weed removal.
It’s tedious but it will pay off in the long run. Use a garden hoe to remove strong weeds or purchase a weed treatment to ward off pesky plants.
Mick Lavelle also told Homes and Gardens: ‘May is the time when plants really start to grow in earnest and hedges, or other closely pruned shrubs, soon develop a rather shaggy and unruly appearance; This is especially true with specimens grown as formal forms.
He went on to explain that May is a good time to lightly prune any coniferous or evergreen hedges, but postpone it even longer if you notice any nesting birds.
Mick also talked about the increase in pests, such as black beetles, which will ruin your precious plants and produce.
To combat them, he advises buying microscopic nematodes, in particular Steinernema kraussei, at a garden center, to kill the larvae.
