Yay for May! It’s time to get busy in the yard and garden! And while we’re here to chat about May’s goals, if you’re still rubbing your eyes from winter and just getting started in the garden, here are March’s and April’s goals for review. Maybe if we’re all outside gardening away, we’ll give Mother Nature the nudge she needs to move it along. We’re ready for spring… Truly!
While you’re out in the garden, watch out for…
Let’s get the cautionary news out of the way….
May is National Lyme’s Disease Awareness month, so start doing the tick check when you come in from the garden. Pro Tip: Throw garden clothes immediately into the dryer after being outside for 10 minutes or more to kill ticks.
The University of Rhode Island’s informative website Tick Encounter gives all the details needed about ticks, from avoiding them to identifying different types and keeping them at bay. The CDC says to shower within two hours of being outside to reduce the chance of infection.
Poison ivy doesn’t seem bothered by a late frost (of course), so check out the Mayo Clinic to identify poison ivy plants and get the what-to-dos.
Now for your list of goals to achieve this month…
Start with the mulch.
Is there anything nicer than a freshly weeded, freshly mulched yard? It looks so tidy (while giving us loads of benefits). So, if you haven’t already, now’s the time to start mulching! Mulch gives a groomed look, but its purpose is more than decorative — it suppresses weeds and helps the soil retain moisture for longer periods of time (very important during the dog days of summer).
- Mulch beds two to three inches thick
- For trees, avoid the candle-in-the-cupcake look around your trees. You should always be able to see the root flare of a tree. That doesn’t mean you can’t mulch around it, and two inches is plenty.
- Weed first! Mulch won’t kill the weeds already growing.
Also, consider a living mulch. Many plants make an excellent ground cover and reduce the need for adding mulch.
A few groundcovers are listed below, but visit the store to see the Toe Ticklers, Jeepers Creepers, and Stepables® for more. Groundcovers aren’t always mondo grass or carex (those have a place) — they can also be lovely blooming perennials. Here are a few to add to perennial beds.
- Ajuga (sun to partial shade)
- Bergenia (dry shade)
- Brunnera (shade)
- Campanula ‘Blue Waterfall’ (part shade)
- Creeping Jenny (sun to partial shade)
- Epimedium (shade to partial sun)
- Green and Gold (shade to partial sun)
- Japanese Forest Grass (full shade)
- Hellebores (dry shade)
- Hostas (shade, some sun)
- Ice plant (sun)
- Sedums (sun)
- Stella d’oro (sun)
- Veronica ‘Georgia Blue’ (sun)
- Veronica ‘Aztec Gold’ (sun)
If they need shaping, prune your spring-blooming shrubs AFTER they’re done blooming.
For pruning your lilacs, check out this excellent article in Fine Gardening.
If your shrubs need shaping or resizing, now’s the time to prune your azaleas, rhododendrons, lilacs, and other spring-blooming shrubs. The best time is when blooms are discolored, faded, and hanging on the shrub. Spring-blooming shrubs bloom on old wood (wood produced this season), so the sooner you prune, the better display of blooms you’ll have next year. The longer you wait, especially if you wait until late summer or fall, you’ll have fewer or no blooms.
Shape up shrubs or hedges that are outgrowing their spots, but don’t remove the stems of spring-blooming bulbs like daffodils or tulips until they turn yellow. Resist the urge to pull them up, and you’ll have better flower production next year. We have more tips on pruning.
Start weeding now.
If you haven’t started already, you’ll have a better chance of getting ahead of them before summer temps spike their growth. And weed before putting down mulch because the mulch won’t kill the weeds already growing.
Knowing your weeds is step one to combating them. Below are two reliable sites for weed identification. There really is no better way than simply pulling the weeds, but if you have a problem area or are starting a new bed, try soil solarization. Some weeds aren’t as bad as we think, and in non-prominent areas or bare places, it’s okay to control them instead of eradicating them.
Finally, what we all want to do right now… Plant!
When planting, step back and look around. What forms the backdrop for your plants? In this picture, a viburnum has the perfect backdrop of the mountains behind it. “Borrowed landscaping” should always factor in whether it is a mountainscape, church steeple, neighbor’s lacebark elm, or farmer’s field; use it to your advantage.
May is a good planting month. Since the garden is gaining full momentum, it’s easier to see the gaps. Now you can match colors, fill in holes, add repetition, get rid of the onesie-look, be aggressive on what needs to go, and keep the goal of unity in the landscape. More information about designing landscapes.
Before you buy, you’ll want to answer these questions help determine the right plants for the right spots.
- What is your sunlight/shade exposure? Determine the exact amount of sunlight hours during different times of the day. Do you have morning sun or afternoon shade? Is it direct or dappled? Full sun, western exposure? Study your landscape and know your situation. This piece is critical to the success of your plantings.
- What are the soil conditions? Dry, moist, always wet?
- Does the plant fit into the allocated space when it is mature?
- At maturity, will it create the necessary shade or too much shade?
- How does it blend/contrast with all of the garden?
- Does it compete with established focal points?
- Does it need to be evergreen or deciduous? Spring, summer, or fall flowering? Tree, shrub, or perennial?
- What plants would combine (contrast in color, texture, height, etc.) with these?
Keep in mind… Masses and sweeps of color are more appealing to the eye than the onesie look. We tend to buy one of everything we love, but massing color helps tie the garden together. Resist buying in ones, buy in threes and fives, and create sweeps of color through your landscape.
Nothing beats a hydrangea! Hydrangea paniculata (pictured above) is a particularly easy one to grow and requires little more than cutting blooms to bring inside. This one is ‘Limelight.’
Plant annuals and warm-season vegetables.
Don’t discount the annuals in your garden. They fill in gaps, bloom all season, and last well into the fall. For the blooming annuals, use Espoma® Flower-tone every 7 to 10 days for maximum bloom.
Also, because we’re near the annual safe date for frost (typically around Mother’s Day), we can plant begonias, coleus, marigolds, petunias, and zinnias this month (and so many more), in the landscape or containers. Annuals are great for all-season color, helping out when the perennial plantings are not in bloom.
Vegetables you can plant now are cantaloupe, cucumbers, okra, pumpkin, watermelon, and squash.
Time to feed!
Once the weather starts to really warm up and the watering schedule increases, remember to fertilize those annuals every 7 to 10 days. Fertilize summer-blooming plants such as crape myrtle, Rose-of-Sharon, and roses this month. Also, fertilize vegetables six weeks after germination.
Happy May!
