Here are your monthly gardening jobs for May:
- Prune spring flowering shrubs such as Ribes, Viburnum and Forsythia. You can read more about how to prune shrubs here.
- Prune Clematis montana after flowering has finished. Read more about how to do this here.
- Take cuttings from herbaceous perennials. Taking cuttings is a really rewarding way of propagating plants and well worth doing if you want to multiply your plants for free. Find out how to do it here.
- Plant out dahlias. Check the tubers for any that have gone soft or rotten, remove them and then plant them up wherever you want them in the garden. Remember to feed your Dahlias often with a high potash feed such as tomato food as they are a hungry plant.
- Thin out annuals and vegetables sown last month. If you sowed your seed direct, then you will need to thin out your seedlings so that the remaining plants have space to grow. The seedlings you take out can always be potted up or transplanted elsewhere.
- Check your climbers often in case they need tying in.
- Plant up hanging baskets and containers for summer. You will need to harden off the plants and keep them somewhere frost free until the end of the month. You can find ideas for summer container plants in my free guide.
- Prick out and pot on seeds you sowed last month. Find out how to do this here.
- Check plants for pests and remove by hand where possible
- Lightly trim evergreen formal hedging.
- Sow biennial seeds such as Honesty, Eryngium and Foxgloves. Biennials live for 2 years. They do all their growing in the first year and then flower and seed in the second year, so you will always have a continuation of them in the garden if you let them go to seed. Read about how to sow seeds here.
- Feed spring flowering bulbs. Bulbs will always benefit from a feed after flowering to help them build up energy for next years flowers. Use a general purpose granular feed to sprinkle around them and lightly fork into the soil.
Happy Gardening!