May & June are busy times in the garden and the more preparation you do now will reap rewards throughout the summer.
If you have been busy germinating your own seeds, your window sills and greenhouses will be full of containers with developing seedlings. Once the danger of frost has passed, these can be planted out but in the meantime, pinch out top leaves to promote bushy growth and try to put them out during the daytime to harden off.
Any shrubs in your garden could now benefit from some attention. Prune back any pure green leaves on variegated shrubs such as privet and euonymus and remove any unsightly frost damage by cutting back to healthy growth. Roses will get off to a good start by applying a rose feed followed by a mulch of around 5cm of garden manure.
At this time of year we are all well into the routine of regularly cutting our lawn’s. There is a view, however, that we should maybe consider the impact of this on wildlife and the environment. We all enjoy the appearance of a neatly cut lawn but some leading gardeners think we should consider our options. Monty Don has now become well known for his mantra ‘No mow May!’. Some suggestions are leaving a small area uncut or maybe cutting attractive pathways through the longer grass or leaving circular areas of longer grass. However, if you enjoy a well cut lawn now is the time to do some work to achieve this by raking up dead grass and then applying a spring lawn feed to boost growth.
You can however, spend some time preparing your soil for the new Spring and Summer growth – you can recycle old compost from the previous year’s pots and containers. Also try and keep on top of weeds that are starting to appear. Choose a sunny day and use a hoe to cover large areas quickly – do avoid using a hoe if the soil is damp.
Some vegetables can now be planted outside in the ground or in containers. Soil preparation and ensuring the correct planting environments are key to good vegetable growing. Ensure that the soil has been dug over to leave a fine finish that resembles bread crumbs, and is free of weeds and large stones. Do not over plant and make sure you comply with the spacing suggestions on the packets. As we move into May you can plant out more, but check the growing instructions for each individual plant.