May to-do list

This is the busiest month!!  If you can get major changes, planting, fertilizing and weeding done now, you can take it easy and enjoy your garden for the summer.  Seriously!! 

• Begin hardening off annuals in a protected area; bring indoors at night if frost is predicted.
• Plant frost-tolerant annuals.
• Plant up containers that are small enough to be moved indoors if frost threatens.
• Get lawn power-raked and aerated (see more comments here).  Top dress lawn and garden with compost: 2” on garden beds and rake ¼” onto lawns.  If using synthetic fertilizer, apply a slow-release lawn fertilizer in mid-May (any earlier and it will get lost in run-off before the ground is warm enough to activate it – a waste and not very environmentally friendly, either).  If planning to seed or overseed your lawn, wait till June.
• Shop, shop, shop!  Perennials can be hardened off and planted any time.  The garden centres have lots of bare root and bulb packages of common perennials at this time of year – you won’t get the instant gratification of planting leafy, blooming perennials in the garden, but they are way cheaper this way – think of the energy saved in transportation, too!.  Choose from hostas, dayliliies, lilies, echinacea and rudbeckia, liatris, and more.
• Existing perennials in the garden can be dug up, moved, divided or shared any time.  Generally, fall-blooming perennials should be moved in spring, and spring-blooming perennials should be moved in fall.  But that’s only if you want to ensure best bloom – go ahead and move spring-blooming plants now if you’re willing to sacrifice a few blooms.  Ideally, most spring planting and replanting should be done in May, so the monsoons of June can water them in and they’ll be well-established before the heat of summer.
• Plant hardy vegetables such as peas, beets, and spinach in early May.
• Prune roses.  Remove dead, diseased or decayed branches.  Cut off any tip-kill, just above an outward-facing bud.
• Stay on top of the weeds.  This is probably most important!!  If you lack time, at least pull off the tops so that they don’t set seed.  Weed seeds, June rain and gardening do not mix well.  Trust me, you will save huge time later on. 

Comments

[LetsPlantLetsPlant]

Great post!!