May

The merry month of May

The gardening season is gathering momentum as the days get longer & the weather continues to improve. Thoughts turn to lavish containers in a bewildering choice of colour schemes. Whether you are nurturing your own home grown plants or buying them from the garden centre don't get caught out by damaging late frosts. The latter half of May, when the risk of night frost has passed, is the best time to think about putting them outdoors. Plant up your containers and baskets but give them a head start in the warm before putting them outside during the day to acclimatize. If you have stored container plants inside during the winter months, then they too can go outside now. Its best not to place them in full sunlight immediately but allow them to acclimatize to the warmth and the light first, initially bringing them back inside overnight.

Spring Clean your outdoor space

At Hayes Garden World we offer a world of exciting plants and trees to choose from - many of them in flower now. Why not pay us a visit and see what's new for you to enjoy in your garden?

• You can create a stylish feel by opting for a particular colour theme or a particular type of plant in different colours.
• Plants in pots are ideal for enhancing your garden or balcony.
• You can also create attractive combinations by mixing flowering plants with eye-catching foliage plants.
• Also don't forget hanging baskets and containers for dressing dull walls or forgotten corners.

Pond Life

• Give your garden pond an overhaul before the summer - read our garden pond article for tips on what jobs need to be done.
• Everything that can grow, flower and live in the pond can go into it now. This includes water hyacinth, water lettuce and other tropical varieties. Ensure that two-thirds of the surface remains free of plants.

Cutting & Pruning

• You can prune early-flowering shrubs which have finished flowering now. On varieties like Forsythia, Ribes and Spiraea cut off a few of the oldest branches every year. This constantly rejuvenates the bushes and means that they continue to bloom magnificently every year.
• Cut the brown sprays that have finished flowering from the lilac. This will ensure it flowers even better next year.
• Prune the winter heather that has finished flowering now.
• It is time to trim hedges in order to prevent them from growing too vigorously. Careful not to prune any hedges if birds are nesting in them.

Planting & Sowing

• Get great summer colour by planting hardy annual seeds direct into borders. Give poppies, cornflowers, ‘Love-in-a-mist' (Nigella) and marigolds a try.
• Plant up summer hanging baskets and containers but protect from late frosts.
• You can sow sunflowers now: these big flowers are easy, fun and lovely for children.
• You can continue to plant evergreen shrubs and conifers until mid-May - they are sometimes supplied with the rootball in sacking.
• If perennials are not showing signs of life yet, then they have not survived the winter. Replace them with new plants and enrich the soil with fertiliser and compost.
• Dig up plants which show few signs of life, cut or divide off the young edges, replant them and throw away the old hearts.
• Dahlias can be planted out at the end of the month & you can also consider planting tropical flowering plants like Canna outside now. You can continue to put in summer-flowering plants until mid-May.
• Plant herbs in the sunniest, most sheltered spot possible. Most kitchen herbs also grow very well in pots and troughs.
• Plant some salad leaves into pots near the back door which makes them handy for continual cropping.
• Sweet corn, runner beans and French beans can be sown directly into outdoor plots. Marrows & courgettes can be planted out at the end of the month.
• Lettuce, peas, broad beans and radishes can all be sown in short rows for successional cropping. Although it is late to sow tomatoes, we are now stocking a range of young plants to grow on.

Maintenance

• Stake tall growing perennials now to support new growth before they get too large & flop over. Its best not to bind bunches of stems to canes; ideally take account of the shape of the plant.
• The grass is now growing vigorously and you will have to mow it more often. Don't forget to feed the grass, since whatever you cut and remove is a potential store of energy for the grass plants.
• Give your paths and patio a good spring clean with a pressure washer or wire patio brush.
• Guide new shoots to where you want them. In many cases they can be inserted between the existing stems, but you will sometimes have to prune in order to keep them under control and regularly tie them again.
• Fertilise hedges at the roots in order to prevent them from looking elsewhere for food and competing with your other plants. Preferably use special food for hedge plants.
• If you want to keep bulbs, they need to take up a sufficient reserve of food. That can only happen if you leave the foliage to wither slowly. Only remove it when it is completely yellowed. This applies not only to bulb crops that you want to allow to go wild, like snowbells, crocus and narcissi, but also for bulbs that you want to dig up and store, like tulips. Mow around withering bulbs in the lawn.
• Young plants in particular need regular watering. Ideally give them rainwater at the right temperature. Water caught in a water butt is perfect. When watering plants with a hose from the mains, allow the water to fall in a fine mist, it will have had time to take on some of the ambient temperature, which is preferable.
• Don't forget to keep newly planted shrubs and trees well watered too until they are well established.
• Clear away spring bedding plants and prepare the ground for summer bedding. Harden off your summer bedding plants so that they are ready to go out when all danger of frost has passed.
• Lift and divide primroses after flowering.
• Keep an eye out for pests and nip them in the bud as soon as they appear. You can get extra help with this by attracting birds to your garden. Not only will they visit your feeders but they will also check out your plants for tasty morsels.
• Apply glasshouse shading or start to use blinds now, and remember to ventilate.
• Perennial weeds in the lawn can be treated with a selective herbicide.
• Start to remove sideshoots from the leaf axils of cordon tomatoes.
• Transplant brassicas such as Brussels sprouts to their cropping positions.
• Remove mildewed foliage from plants such as Pulmonaria. Cut to the base, water well and fresh leaves will grow.
• Pull up forget-me-nots after flowering. For a display next year, leave longer so plants are allowed to self seed.