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gardening jobs you can do in May
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Well lets hope May is better than April was. Some things will be off to a slow start due to poor weather in April but they will catch up soon. Do remember to make allowances for where you live, sooner in the south later in the north etc.
Do let us know what your doing in your garden to give the rest of us ideas. Her are some things that can be done to get us going.
General gardening
* Finish anything left over from April
* Weed, weed, weed..Cant do too much weeding!
* Feed regularly
* Watch out for pest and diseases best to treat early if poss
* If you have not done so, use the first 2 weeks of may to do lawn repairs and lay new turf, it looks wetter than the end of May, less watering needed.
* Mow lawn regularly
* Mulch all plants after watering if not already done so
* Watch out for slugs…
* Make a note of any spring gaps that could be filled for next year
* Turn your compost, remember to add dry and wet stuff
Flower garden
* Sow hardy annuals and perennials straight outside
* Plant dahlias
* sunflowers ….grow some for the birds and good fun for kids if you can keep slugs away from them!! the sunflowers that is, not the kids!
* Pot on or plant (after hardening off if needed) plug plants
* Tidy alpines, trim off old flowers and dead bits etc
* Use twigs for support growing things where needed
* Plant up hanging baskets
* Divide clumps of herbaceous perennials
* Deadhead daffs and tulips leave the leaves to die down as long as poss and divide over crowded blind clumps
* Plant out cannas and other tender plants when no chance of frost
* Bedding plants can go in this month depending where you live but the 2nd half looks better for this.Also a good time to plant snowdrops in the green, better success rate than dry bulbs in the sutumn
Greenhouse
* Remember to ventilate on warm days
* Pinch out growing tips of fuchsias
* Sow French and runner beans for early crop
* Sow sweet corn
* Take cuttings of geraniums, also softwood cuttings of shrubs
Kitchen garden
* you can sow dwarf French beans, beetroot, sprouting broccoli, Brussels sprouts, summer and savoy cabbage, cauliflower, ridge cucumbers, endive, kale, kohl rabi, lettuce, marrows, peas, radish, spinach, swede, sweet corn and turnips. French Beans, Runner Beans, your salad crops should be sown in succession
* Plant little gem or radishes between sprouts as a quick crop
* Earth up early potatoes
* If like me your peach tree has leaf curl this year, pick off and throw leaves in bin. not compost, the new leaves will not be affected.
* Plant out seedlings of alpine strawberries
* Plant out tomatoes when no danger of frost.
* Sow basil, parsley and coriander. Also nasturtiums for the edible flowers
Ponds
* Last chance to plant water lilies
* Feed aquatic plants
* Trim excessive growth on plants
* Algae is common lots of ways to deal with it, but try this for ideas http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0500/algae.asp
* Watch water levels, these may drop if we have warmer/hot weather:rolleyes:
Wildlife
* Feed the birds, not whole peanuts, dangerous to baby birds
* Keep a fresh water supply available for wildlife
* Try not to disturbed nesting sites, you can tidy shrubs, ivy etc later when the have all left the nest.
* Have you got a log pile yet?
* Try to make pond wildlife friendly
* Plant a wildlife meadow if space allows
* Remember insects are the gardener's friend, try to work with the cycle of nature if possible.
There are probably lots of other things I should have put here but got flu type thing so not thinking clearly, will update when I feel a bit better.
Happy gardening everyone
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Do let us know what your doing in your garden to give the rest of us ideas. Her are some things that can be done to get us going.
General gardening
* Finish anything left over from April
* Weed, weed, weed..Cant do too much weeding!
* Feed regularly
* Watch out for pest and diseases best to treat early if poss
* If you have not done so, use the first 2 weeks of may to do lawn repairs and lay new turf, it looks wetter than the end of May, less watering needed.
* Mow lawn regularly
* Mulch all plants after watering if not already done so
* Watch out for slugs…
* Make a note of any spring gaps that could be filled for next year
* Turn your compost, remember to add dry and wet stuff
Flower garden
* Sow hardy annuals and perennials straight outside
* Plant dahlias
* sunflowers ….grow some for the birds and good fun for kids if you can keep slugs away from them!! the sunflowers that is, not the kids!
* Pot on or plant (after hardening off if needed) plug plants
* Tidy alpines, trim off old flowers and dead bits etc
* Use twigs for support growing things where needed
* Plant up hanging baskets
* Divide clumps of herbaceous perennials
* Deadhead daffs and tulips leave the leaves to die down as long as poss and divide over crowded blind clumps
* Plant out cannas and other tender plants when no chance of frost
* Bedding plants can go in this month depending where you live but the 2nd half looks better for this.Also a good time to plant snowdrops in the green, better success rate than dry bulbs in the sutumn
Greenhouse
* Remember to ventilate on warm days
* Pinch out growing tips of fuchsias
* Sow French and runner beans for early crop
* Sow sweet corn
* Take cuttings of geraniums, also softwood cuttings of shrubs
Kitchen garden
* you can sow dwarf French beans, beetroot, sprouting broccoli, Brussels sprouts, summer and savoy cabbage, cauliflower, ridge cucumbers, endive, kale, kohl rabi, lettuce, marrows, peas, radish, spinach, swede, sweet corn and turnips. French Beans, Runner Beans, your salad crops should be sown in succession
* Plant little gem or radishes between sprouts as a quick crop
* Earth up early potatoes
* If like me your peach tree has leaf curl this year, pick off and throw leaves in bin. not compost, the new leaves will not be affected.
* Plant out seedlings of alpine strawberries
* Plant out tomatoes when no danger of frost.
* Sow basil, parsley and coriander. Also nasturtiums for the edible flowers
Ponds
* Last chance to plant water lilies
* Feed aquatic plants
* Trim excessive growth on plants
* Algae is common lots of ways to deal with it, but try this for ideas http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0500/algae.asp
* Watch water levels, these may drop if we have warmer/hot weather:rolleyes:
Wildlife
* Feed the birds, not whole peanuts, dangerous to baby birds
* Keep a fresh water supply available for wildlife
* Try not to disturbed nesting sites, you can tidy shrubs, ivy etc later when the have all left the nest.
* Have you got a log pile yet?
* Try to make pond wildlife friendly
* Plant a wildlife meadow if space allows
* Remember insects are the gardener's friend, try to work with the cycle of nature if possible.
There are probably lots of other things I should have put here but got flu type thing so not thinking clearly, will update when I feel a bit better.
Happy gardening everyone
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Comments
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Have managed to get 1/2 an hours weeding done this morning, topped up all the bird and squirrel feeders.
Pond water looking much better, peach tree looks a bit bald now, took off all the peach curl affected leaves last night, will look better soon as new ones grow.
off to work now....happy gardening0 -
I feel like I am on top of it all at the moment but all of a sudden everything has sprung into life. Including the weeds. I'm teaching DS (3.5) how to hoe:rotfl:0
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I'm beginning to wish I wasn't so quick to plant a few things out the other day as I think they've all gone into shock with the torrential rain and cooler weather we're having :doh: :rolleyes:“You can please some of the people some of the time, all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time.”0
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I feel really really fed up with my garden, my very kind neighbour brought me a plant over yesterday when i was out, so I popped over and said thank you to him and his wife, they were very keen to show me there back garden....Wow, I have never seen anything like it, it was beautiful, perfect lawn, beautiful borders, hes done a great job. I came home, when into my garden, and got the hoe out, I felt so dissappointed with my garden and I threw the hoe, and today it is still lying on the weedy thing I call a lawn...I know I shouldn't have garden envy, but mine looks like totally cr*p in comparison, I'm blo*dy useless at everything I do just lately.
Merlot.x."Wisdom doesn't automatically come with old age. Nothing does, except wrinkles. It's true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place." — Abigail Van Buren0 -
Oh dear Merlot, they didn't mean for you to feel like that afterwards I'm sure! Gardens are a work in progress. People trying to make out it's effortless, now that could be annoying...:T:j :TMFiT-T2 No.120|Challenge started 12.12.09|MFD 12.12.12 :j:T:j0
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mrs_deadline wrote: »Oh dear Merlot, they didn't mean for you to feel like that afterwards I'm sure! Gardens are a work in progress. People trying to make out it's effortless, now that could be annoying...
Mrs deadline, you are right, they had no idea, they are lovely people and wanted to me show what they have done with a sloping garden as mine is, I just didn't expect it to be quite like that, I know it's only a garden and I need to get a grip on reality, but I have spent along time in my garden and it still looks like I haven't made any effort. Still his house is 8 years old and mine 4,(my house was the last to be built as it was the showhouse car park) so the neighbour has had a lot of time to get his established, I only made a start on mine last year so in 7 years time, I too could have a garden as pretty as his. (I don't think so in reality, he is retired, no kids, so plenty of time on his hands, whereas I do everything in the house and the garden as my OH has a stressful job and works long hours and is currently studying for a Masters).
I can dream...."Wisdom doesn't automatically come with old age. Nothing does, except wrinkles. It's true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place." — Abigail Van Buren0 -
Haven't you just started working on your garden though, Merlot?
How well-established is your neighbours garden?
How much time do they spend on it?
Do both of them work on it?
How long have they been gardening?
I guess I'm just reading 'kind neighbour who is amazing gardener' as 'experienced retiree'.
I know I've written this twice on this board already this week (!) but I've been gardening for 1 year, the garden was a dump when I started and this year, it already looks great (to me!). I feel so much more confident this year about what I'm growing, the amount of time I want to spend gardening (I have other hobbies!) and what it will look like that amount of effort.
I would really urge you to keep the faith, even in a month or so you will really see the benefits. I wish I'd taken more photos of mine when it was a wreck so I could gloat over it even more now!
My neighbours garden is about 4 times the size of mine, lovely lawn, full of fruit trees, tubs of architectural plants, little patio, well-established flower boarders, the works. However I know that the garden is shared by 3 flats and 4 of my neighbours work on it! Best of all, they are very relaxed types and when I stand in the garden thinking 'What should I do?', I look over the fence for inspiration and see them having a quiet drink, playing with their kids or preparing a barbecue and it reminds me that I'm lucky to have a garden and I should enjoy it first and foremost.0 -
A-ha! I posted before I read your reply! I knew it! Mind you, you have a great source of free plants suitable for your area now! Also, only those who've dug a bed know how hard it is and how long it takes!0
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Haven't you just started working on your garden though, Merlot?
How well-established is your neighbours garden?
How much time do they spend on it?
Do both of them work on it?
How long have they been gardening?
I guess I'm just reading 'kind neighbour who is amazing gardener' as 'experienced retiree'.
I know I've written this twice on this board already this week (!) but I've been gardening for 1 year, the garden was a dump when I started and this year, it already looks great (to me!). I feel so much more confident this year about what I'm growing, the amount of time I want to spend gardening (I have other hobbies!) and what it will look like that amount of effort.
I would really urge you to keep the faith, even in a month or so you will really see the benefits. I wish I'd taken more photos of mine when it was a wreck so I could gloat over it even more now!
My neighbours garden is about 4 times the size of mine, lovely lawn, full of fruit trees, tubs of architectural plants, little patio, well-established flower boarders, the works. However I know that the garden is shared by 3 flats and 4 of my neighbours work on it! Best of all, they are very relaxed types and when I stand in the garden thinking 'What should I do?', I look over the fence for inspiration and see them having a quiet drink, playing with their kids or preparing a barbecue and it reminds me that I'm lucky to have a garden and I should enjoy it first and foremost.
Plum Pie, very kind of you to reply to me.
I started a wee bit on the garden last year, but because of the heavy rainfall and the fact that my garden is sloping, alot of the plants/shrubs in the border basically rotted
. So this year, I have had to start again, I have planted a few things, and I can see the Lavarta (sp?) taking off a wee bit. I just felt hugely disappointed with my garden and I know I shouldn't, but you are quite right the neighbour is obviously an expert gardener, it really was worthy of a place in the Chelsea flower show, I must remember that my garden is for my children also and that in mind I cannot be too fussy over the lawn and the planting etc. I really would love to see your garden too, is it on the photo thread, I recall seeing one a few days ago.
The neighbours garden is 8 years established and mine 8 days:rotfl:
They are retired so have a lot of time, and the neighbour is the chairperson of the local "flowers in bloom" for the town, so I think I have to drop my sights a wee bit:rotfl: , as my OH says the neighbours garden is the exception rather than the norm, and usually things like trying to keep up with the Jones don't interest me, but really his garden took my breath away...its perfect."Wisdom doesn't automatically come with old age. Nothing does, except wrinkles. It's true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place." — Abigail Van Buren0 -
I'll post a picture next week once I mowed the lawn, the lawn is almost as high as some of the tiny shrubs so you can't see them, and you kind people could maybe give me some feedback/advice."Wisdom doesn't automatically come with old age. Nothing does, except wrinkles. It's true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place." — Abigail Van Buren0
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