Some things to do in the garden in May.
- Keep Weeding, use your osslating hoe often.
- Start watering indoor plants liberally until autumn, include liquid fertiliser.
- Refresh compost,remove dead or damaged growth.If your plant has outgrown your favourite pot, rather than buying a new larger pot, root prune and top prune, fresh compost and off it goes again.
- Start hardening off all your now potted up seedlings.
- Keep mulching soil before the plants grow too much and you can still get in between them and see what you’re doing.
- Allow your spring bulbs to die back naturally, dead head,including you’re tulips as they fade.
- Prune shrubs that have flowered such as Japanese quince, choisya and ribes.
- It’s a good idea to get ahead of the game by putting in supports for oriental poppies, peonies and delphiniums. Once plants have got going it’s really difficult to try to prop them up and they may already be damaged. Look at putting in canes or pea sticks next to sweet peas, climbing roses, runner beans and peas, and tie the plants in to them as necessary.
- Divide large clumps of grasses such as Calamagrostis, Stepa gigainata and Molina Transparent, they prefer a warmer soil to settle into.
- Remove suckers from fruit trees and lilacs, also stray raspberry canes.
- Sow runner beans, don’t forget the supports.
- Keep harvesting you rhubarb – freezes really well.
- Start thinking of plants to put into your summer containers, include some wild flower seeds.
- Sow basil, tarragon, coriander in pots, carrots in the ground ( don’t forget about carrot root fly and how to protectthe carrots.)