May is a lovely time of the year. Signs of summer are everywhere, days are warmer and longer and more flowers are in bloom, adding colour and scent to the garden. Summer bedding plants are available from shops and garden centres and, if you have grown your own bedding plants, you will be anxious to get them planted outdoors - both to make space in the greenhouse and to reduce the amount of time you spend watering and feeding them.
You should, however, resist the temptation to plant out tender annuals during a spell of fine, summer weather at the beginning of the month. Be guided by past experience as to the likelihood of late frosts in your area. In favourable parts of the country, such as the south and south-west, it may be reasonable to take the risk and plant out at the beginning of the month. But even in those mild areas, the middle of the month is a safer choice. In cold regions wait until the end of the month or even delay planting out until the beginning of June. If you are in any doubt as to when to plant out, and you live in a town, be guided by the local parks - and plant out summer bedding when they do. They will be basing their timing on many years of local experience.
Sow fast-maturing and late-flowering annuals, herbs and vegetables including parsnips, early carrots and runner beans.
- Prick out and pot up young seedlings and cuttings before they become overcrowded.
- Start hardening off bedding plants but put plants under cover if frost threatens.
- Control pests and diseases especially slugs and snails. Ventilate cold frames and greenhouses whenever possible. This encourages sturdy plat growth. Remove winter insulation from greenhouse and put on shading.
- Place supports in position around perennials that require staking. If the supports are put in position early, the plants will grow through them and hide them.
- Stop chrysanthemums as close as possible to the ideal date for the type you are growing.
- Plant hanging baskets and keep them in a greenhouse or frost-free conservatory or porch.
- Apply a general slow-release fertiliser to containers; applied as a surface dressing in spring it should last plants in containers the whole growing season.
- Start removing sideshoots and pinching out tendrils if growing sweet peas on the cordon system.
- Feed shrubs, trees, new hedges and fruit bushes as necessary.
- Hard prune shrubs, such as buddleja, that produce their best show on vigorous new wood. Prune spring-flowering shrubs that are over three years old once they have finished flowering.
- Protect brassicas, such as cabbages and cauliflowers, with brassica collars against cabbage root fly, and erect plastic screens in the vegetable garden to deter carrot fly.
- Earth up early potatoes to protect them from light and frost.
- Begin mowing the lawn regularly. Frequent mowing encourages dense growth.
- Feed fish when they become active again after the winter.
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