May is the month when intensive work in the garden begins. The last frosts pass, you can freely plant trees and shrubs, and transplant seedlings into the ground. It’s also worth taking care of fruit trees and the home garden. How? Read!
may 12-14 is the so-called “cold gardeners” – the limit after which in our climate frosts should no longer happen. This is also the conventional date after which gardeners can begin transplanting frost-sensitive plants into the ground. However, planting and transplanting are not the only challenges you will face in May. It is also worth doing a little maintenance to keep your garden looking its best!
May is the season when fruit trees begin to set buds from which fruit can potentially grow. That’s why it’s important to take care of your orchard during this time to make sure your trees produce as much as possible.
At the beginning of May, it is a good idea to remove dried shoots by hand which have been frosted by low temperatures during the winter. They will no longer grow fruit, and are more susceptible to infection by fungi or bacteria. If at the beginning of the month there are night frosts, it is worth protecting the buds with non-woven fabric – then you can be sure that both flowers and fruit buds will survive the low temperatures.
If you have young fruit trees in your orchard, remember that you can fertilize them for the first time only 1.5 years after planting them in the ground . However, it is worth loosening the soil around them. It is advisable to fertilize older trees as early as the end of April, and younger ones as late as mid-May with compound fertilizers. And don’t forget to water!
May is also the month when you can plant container-grown plants into the ground – not those with bare roots, of course. This is the best time to plant beautifully flowering azaleas and rhododendrons and to tidy up your beds. In May all weeds are still poorly rooted, so it is easy to get rid of them by hand and without chemicals. This is a long and tedious process, but the results are worth it
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In the first half of May you can still sow some annuals such as sweet peas, orchids and nasturtiums, and in the second half of the month you can also sow biennials such as bluebells, pansies and foxgloves. If you want to plant seedlings in the ground, it is a good idea to harden off the young plants first and slowly get them used to the outside conditions. Don’t put them into the ground until after 16 May when the last frosts have passed.
If you are an amateur grower of your own vegetables, you will be curious to know what you can do in your vegetable garden in May. In the greenhouse it is certainly time for the first harvest of new vegetables, such as chives and radishes. Winter-sown crops such as asparagus should also be ready to eat by now
Now it is a good idea to start sowing more species. You can transplant cucumbers from seedlings and also sow corn, carrots, green beans and beets directly into the ground. Remember to bird-proof your area. Do scarecrows still work?
May is unquestionably the most beautiful month of the year. Fruit trees bloom, ornamental shrubs bloom, even some bulbous plants still bloom. Lilacs are fragrant and the whole world awakens to life. This is the time when you as a gardener can admire your efforts – they have resulted in this beautiful garden that you can now observe from your terrace
Apart from all the garden work, there is one more thing you should do in your garden in May – relax. Try to catch the first rays of sun and drink coffee on a deckchair with a good book. Just like that, spend a moment alone with your garden
