May in the garden
Tidy and Mend
Once spring bulbs are over, rather than cutting down the foliage, leave to die and break down naturally. Doing this and adding liquid fertiliser around the clumps will encourage strong growth next spring. It’s still an idea to deadhead any faded flowers to prevent plants wasting energy creating seed heads.
Spring flowering shrubs should also be pruned back to encourage next year’s growth, and now is also a good time to give any box and other formal hedging a bit of a gentle tidy up. Make sure to use hand shears rather than mechanical hedge trimmers which often bruise rather than cut the leaves.
Continue to hoe soil to keep down weeds. This should be done in warm, dry conditions to ensure any weed seedlings left on the surface dehydrate and die.
Supporting your shrubs and climbers
Support your tall growing perennials like Delphiniums, Peonies and Fuschia with circular plant support hoops, or bamboo canes with string.
Climbers can make wonderful patio displays in the right pots. Make sure any pots you use for this are at least 35cm diameter to give the climber roots enough space. I love the rustic effect of making wigwams from silver birch, but if you’re after a more regimented look canes will do the job just as well. Either way you need each pole / cane to be at least 2m tall, and should have one per plant.
When your climbers start to take off, their shoots will need to be tied in regularly to keep them from smothering nearby plants and generally becoming wayward.
Grow Your Own
Flowers
Once the frosts are over, plant out half-hardy annuals, dahlia tubers and chrysanthemums and start successional planting of gladioli bulbs.
Thin hardy annuals in seed beds, to make ready for planting out
Direct sow zinnias.
Do a second sowing of half-hardy annuals eg. antirrhinums, amaranthus, moluccella laevis (Bells of Ireland) (inside) to give you flowers until nearly Christmas
Grow Your Own
Veg and Salad
Plant out half-hardy annuals, or direct sow eg. French beans, carrots, sweetcorn, squash and pumpkins.
In this dry weather it’s best to water the drills before sowing seeds, then cover with dry soil. Also water daily to prevent the compost drying out.
Continue successional sowing of salads, radishes, beetroots, carrots and peas, to ensure a continuous harvest throughout the summer rather than a glut of everything all at once.
Keep banking up soil over emerging potato shoots, protecting from late frosts but also encouraging a larger yield.
Herbs
Direct sow basil, particularly alongside tomato seedlings to help draw white fly away from the fruit.
Keep mint roots under control by lifting and dividing, or alternatively grow in pots. Once within a pot they can be buried within a bed with other herbs if preferred.
Fruit
Strawberries are insect-pollinated so make sure pollinators have access to your plants, whether in the greenhouse or outside under cover.
Keep an eye out for less desirable insects and creatures such as vine weevil, slugs, sawfly larvae and fruitworms, particularly on gooseberry and currant bushes, and protect young fruit from birds by covering with netting or horticultural fleece
Harvesting Food – What you could be picking and eating this time next year, or – if you’re an old hand – already are
- Brassicas: kale, cauliflower, late purple sprouting broccoli, spring cabbage
- Roots: radishes, first carrots, 1st potatoes (raised inside)
- Salad crops: salad leaves, pea tips and the 1st Cos lettuce
- Edible Flowers: borage and marigolds
- Leafy greens: chard and spinach
- Legumes: 1st broad beans (end of the month)
- Squash: 1st indoor courgettes
- Other veg: baby globe artichokes
- Herbs: soft herbs - parsley, chervil, coriander, par-cel, 1st sorrel, evergreens: rosemary, sage, bay and winter savory, mint, tarragon, 1st dill, oregano and basil (inside)
- Fruit: cloched strawberries and rhubarb and gooseberries need to be thinned on the branch
Harvesting Flowers – Lovely things to pick and arrange from your garden in April
- Bulbs: Narcissi, fritillaries, hyacinths and tulips
- Hardy annuals: Euphorbia oblongata and 1st autumn-sown marigolds
- Perennials: Euphorbias, polyanthus, hellebores and 1st Solomon seal and lily of the valley
Wildlife in the Garden
As the weather gets warmer, pond weed can quickly get out of control if left. It’s an easy and fun job removing it, best done with a small net or old kitchen sieve. The warmer temperatures will also make any fish more active, and now’s the time to start feeding them daily.
