As soon as May Day arrives, the gardening season kicks into high gear—are you excited yet? What makes this month so unique is that each week the risk of frost varies, so a well-planned to-do list will ensure you can get more done (and have more fun!) all month long. Strap on your trusty gloves; here’s what to do in the garden from early to late May!
The soil is workable, and it’s pretty much safe to put the parkas into storage, but the chance of an overnight freeze or light flurry is still pretty high for the next several weeks. No matter what the weather has in store, here are some early May jobs you can do in the garden early in the month!
Organic matter and garden beds go together like peanut butter and jelly! If you haven’t already, adding two inches of compost or well-rotted manure at this time will set your plants up for a healthy season, improve soil texture, and help feed the good things living below the surface. For best results, alternate the type of organic matter you add each year.
Some veggies do best (and taste sweeter) when grown in cooler conditions. You can direct seed salad greens like lettuce, spinach, and kale, along with root veggies like carrots and edible bulbs such as onions and shallots. Seed potatoes can go into the ground a little later, about a week into May.
These early May temperatures are just peachy for planting trees and shrubs; they prefer to settle their roots into cool soils, plus it gives them an entire growing season to become established before next winter. Now that your other trees and shrubs have likely started to leaf out—some might even be in flower!—it may be a good time to evaluate areas that might be a little colour-poor. It’s also an excellent time to pay attention to how the plantings you currently have affect the amount and location of sun and shade in your landscape.
Mid-May is a glorious time to be a gardener! While there’s some degree of frost risk, it’s mostly manageable with a few sheets and an eye on the forecast. We can really start getting to the fun stuff at this time of the month—here’s what you can do in the garden in mid-May!
By now, our garden centre in Guelph is brimming with brand new annuals—yippee! Planning your visit in mid-May will allow you to beat the crowds (and possibly lineups) that materialize every Victoria Day weekend. Provided you have a sunny, sheltered area to store your annuals before it’s time to plant them, showing up early gets you a better selection and a more relaxed shopping experience.
The evening temperatures are still a little chilly for hot-weather veggies like tomatoes and peppers, but warmer daytime temperatures mean you can absolutely start adjusting any seeds started indoors to the outdoors with gradual, controlled exposure. While you’re at it, consider giving some of your houseplants a summer vacation on the patio this year! After a long year of indoor lighting, they’ll also need to be hardened off for outdoor life, so bring them along as you set out your seedlings.
Now that the daytime temperatures in the high teens are pretty commonplace, real outdoor living can begin! The more inviting your outdoor space is, the more you’ll want to use it, so go all-out on creating your staycation-worthy patio. Give your furniture a good clean (and polish, if needed), pressure-wash your hardscapes, and try out a new outdoor rug for instant “wow-factor.” Then, decorate with some outdoor cushions, a fun umbrella, or shade structure, and don’t forget lighting!
Spring, who? By the time Victoria Day rolls around, it might as well be summertime in Southern Ontario. The possibilities in your late May garden are pretty much limitless, but here’s what you definitely won’t want to skip!
Your garden has likely started to take shape now, and the blank spaces in your garden will now be very apparent. Bedding plants (like those annuals you bought last weekend!) can all go into the ground—hooray! As you plant, keep the other seasons in mind—you’ll want to plan for a good mix of spring flowers, summer bloomers, fall colour, and winter interest. Consider leaving some space for mid-season planting, or simply remember to add later-blooming plants to your shopping list.
If you planted spring-blooming bulbs in the fall, they’re at their peak now—but they won’t last much longer! Summer bulbs like lilies, dahlias, alliums, and gladiolus are just fantastic for brightening up your garden later in the season, right when the annuals you purchased this month will be on their last legs. Get them in the ground early and plant them a week apart for successive blooms. If you plant glads this year, try planting them nice and deep to stabilize the plants and reduce the need for staking.
You’ve got to love container gardening; it’s fun, it’s easy, and the rewards are instantaneous. If this is your first year doing containers, the standby design principle is “thriller, filler, spiller”—in other words, put a tall, eye-catching plant in the middle, a mounding plant around the ‘thriller,’ and cascading, trailing plants along the edges––this creates a well-balanced arrangement that looks great from every angle! Make sure to pair plants with similar sun and moisture needs, and always use fresh, high-quality potting soil—garden soil is not suitable for containers.
By the end of May, heat-loving veggies can come out to play! Once they’re properly hardened off, your tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and any other warm-weather veggies can be safely transplanted into the garden. Make sure to choose a location that gets 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day, and keep a consistent watering and fertilizing schedule for the best possible harvest!
Now that you know what to do in the garden all through the month, you’ll definitely have a busy May ahead of you! As we move into June, you’ll be starting the season surrounded by colour and fragrance, so therapeutic after a long and arduous year. For all your gardening needs this month—and every month thereafter!—visit us in-store or browse our online shop.
