“May, the month when the foliage of herbs and trees is most freshly green, when buds ripen and blossoms appear in their fragrance and loveliness.” Gardening in May is usually a pleasure due to the longer, lighter, and warmer days. Not so this year, alas. I think I was over-optimistic last month when I opined the sunshine was here to stay. Certainly I’ve not spent as much time in our garden this month as in previous years. But a gardener’s lot is never quiet, no matter the weather, so welcome to our May garden, and let’s take a look at what’s on my gardening to do in May list.
What to do in the garden in May
Despite all the rain, I think this may be one of the loveliest shots I’ve ever taken of the orchard. The fruit trees are in full blossom, even though a lot of it has scattered, confetti-like, on the grass. Gardening in May is so much easier when the sun is shining though! So here are my gardening jobs for the month – as always, I hope my May gardening tips will be helpful, no matter where you live in the world.
Planting flowers in May
For many people, their first experience of growing and nurturing a plant tends to be in Spring. So, starting a garden in May is a great time because the soil has really warmed up. If you don’t have room for larger plants, like the beautiful pink rhododendron in this month’s cover picture, then some garden centres are still selling tulips in pots. And these flowering bulbs can be transplanted directly into your garden. With the advantage that you can see what you’re getting first hand, rather than waiting for your Spring bulbs to surprise you!
Apart from tulips then, what are the best flowers to plant in May? Shoutout to one of my favourite perennials, Aquilegias, the quintessential cottage garden staples often known as Columbine or Granny’s Bonnets. Coming in all colours and super easy to grow, they prefer damp shade but will also thrive in sun as long as their roots stay damp. We have them all over our garden, in the woodland area, around the rockery, in pots, next to walls, and the one on the left is a self-seeder that comes back inside our greenhouse every year.
Still on the subject of planting in May, now is still a great time to buy your bare root perennials (plants that are packed in plastic bags with no soil, rather than in pots). On arrival, give them a good drink in a bucket of water and get them in the ground. Then you can look forward to Spring blooms next year – just like our Viburnum Opulus Roseum at the front of the house. Nicknamed the snowball bush, the blooms start off pale green and over time turn white, a stunning contrast with the bright green leaves. And they work beautifully as cut flowers mixed in with some fragrant pale purple sprigs from our Lilac bush. Another bare root purchase some six years ago, which is now taller than me.
Although I’ve been dead heading daily, we’ve still got a few daffodils and narcissi to enjoy – don’t they look lovely, naturalised in the grass and against the bluebells? Another colour match made in heaven are the bluebells at the front of our house, next to some zingy green Euphorbia Oblangata. I sowed the euphorbias from seed about ten years ago and all I do now is prune them every couple of months, to encourage new growth. So simple, but so effective. Tip: wear gloves when pruning euphorbias as their sap is a skin irritant.
Over in our woodland area, our wild garlic is still flowering happily next to some cyclamens, tiny wild violets, and shade-loving ferns. Honestly, once these plants find their feet (or roots) they’ll look after themselves. And our lily-of-the-valley has started to flower as well, throwing out her delicate scent every time we walk past.
On the subject of scent, an honourable mention has to go to all the fruit tree blossom in our orchard. Our beloved apple tree is covered in it and it’s wild to me that every single tiny bloom has the potential to grow into an apple! Ditto our cherry trees, which are also smothered in flowers.
Rather excitingly, the pear tree, plum tree, kiwi bush, blueberry bushes, raspberry bushes, and gooseberry bushes are all growing tiny fruits already – so no more flowers to show on them. But May is when our three beautiful clematis Montana Mayleen are in their full glory, carpeting the wall, pergola, and fence with their satin pink blooms and bronze foliage. And wafting their almond and vanilla fragrance as you walk past. I planted these as little 30cm plants some years ago, and now they’ve pretty much taken over.
May planting also includes creating hanging baskets. I’m not a fan of these because I always forget to water them (!) but I know they can give a lot of joy to those of you with limited outside space, for example. If you don’t want to plant up your own, Thompson Morgan offer a wide range of pre-planted hanging baskets* to choose from. And hanging baskets aren’t only for decorative flowers either, try some edible orange calendulas or violets. And cherry tomatoes and strawberries both do very well in containers too. You just need to remember to give them a liquid feed every 10 days or so as they’ll exhaust the nutrients in their baskets quite quickly.
What to do in the vegetable garden in May
“Queer things happen in the garden in May. Little faces forgotten appear, and plants thought to be dead suddenly wave a green hand to confound you.” Vegetable gardening in May this year has been surprise. Our broad beans* are well away and need tying in to some supports. I’ll be sowing some more soon, in another attempt at succession planting (so you have new crops growing as you harvest existing ones). But look what’s appeared in the same bed – some potatoes! I obviously didn’t harvest them all last year and they’ve started growing again. And over in another vegetable bed, a plethora of baby tree spinach seedlings that have self-sown from the single plant a neighbour gave me last year. I don’t want them to grow to full height though so I’ll keep harvesting them as microgreens instead.
And if you’re wondering what vegetables can you plant in May, or what seeds to sow in May, then carrots*, runner beans*, multi-coloured climbing French beans*, Swiss chard*, and broccoli* are perfect for sowing outside now. I’m also keen to try some Romanesco*, which is rich in antioxidants, and which you can pick as spears or as mini heads. Fun fact: I once got Flora to eat some by referring to it as “Space Broccoli” rather than cauliflower 🙂
Greenhouse gardening in May is also well underway. On the left, top shelf, are the tomatoes*, some newly sown French beans*, and the sweet pea seedlings that are WELL overdue for planting out. Bottom shelf are the nasturtiums*. In the middle, we have the Claret Sunflowers* and some Cosmos Lemonade*. And over on the right are the cucumbers*, edible pelargonium cuttings that I’ll pot up when they’ve rooted, some more tomatoes*, and some Cosmos Dazzler*.
Newly transplanted to the greenhouse (originally started off as seeds indoors) are Rudbeckia Cherry Brandy* seedlings on the left, some Sweetcorn* in the middle, and some French lavender* and Cucamelons* (first grown very successfully last year) on the right. With the exception of the tomatoes (which are ready for Gro-bags inside the greenhouse) and the sweet peas, I’ll need to harden off all these seedlings before I plant them out, after I’m sure we’ve had the last frosts. So that simply means popping them outside during the day and bringing them in at night for a couple of weeks. Basically, I want to acclimatise them before they go to their final planting places in the garden.
Gardening jobs to do in May
First up on the May gardening to do list is continuing to prepare the best gardening soil possible for our future summer bedding flowers and edibles: fertilised, weed free, and raked to a fine tilth (ie, no large clumps or stones). Then I’ll be able to direct sow some annuals: salad crops, some wildflowers seed mix, and more edible flowers – blue Cornflowers* and yellow Calendulas* for the win. Although if you do nothing else but weed and mulch your beds this month, that will help enormously.
I mentioned our glorious Clematis Montanas earlier – you’re supposed to prune them after they’ve finished blooming but I never do – probably why they’ve spread so much… But I have been tying in all the new growth on our summer-flowering clematis plants to their supports. This you need to do regularly to protect new shoots, and it also applies to climbers such as wisteria and honeysuckle. Speaking of new shoots, some thuggish mint plants are taking over the herb bed, so I need to conduct a ruthless cull very soon. Lots of mint tea incoming then, yum!
Under normal circumstances, I’d be starting to water the garden, either early or late, but with all the rain I haven’t needed to – silver linings. And I’m very happy to say that our reliable Rhubarb is ready for harvesting – you should pull off (never cut) the stems as they develop, to encourage more new growth for harvesting.
Wildlife gardening jobs for May
All our ponds are very happy and teeming with tadpoles, which so far haven’t been wiped out for reasons unknown like last year. And the pond pump on the main pond is doing a sterling job – we can see all the fish now, and it’s great to know they made it through the winter. Although, as I mentioned last month, when the water warms up, the algae will start to bloom faster. So I’ve got a couple of bales of barley straw* to help discourage algae and keep the water clearer over summer.
Our bee box is quite literally buzzing with life (so much so that we have to duck as we’re coming in and out of the back door). It’s just lovely to see, and to know that we’re doing our bit for nature. You can buy a bug hotel like this on Amazon* for less than £15.00 – a small price to pay to help the bees, don’t you think?
It’s not only the bees we want to help either. In the spirit of waste not, want not, any cat food that our fussy felines don’t want, we empty onto the lawn. While hedgehogs are night time visitors, we have a family of three magpies who are regular day time visitors and are only too happy to hoover up the cats’ leavings.
Did you know that this month is #NoMowMay alongside #EveryFlowerCounts at the end of May? And that leaving a patch of grass or your whole lawn unmown for a month provides a huge amount of nectar for our hungry bees? While we don’t leave our whole lawn and orchard, Alan has been mowing the grass on a high setting and he’s left a few corners to grow wild. We have an absolute explosion of cow parsley and dandelions in the orchard in particular, and they’re great food for birds and bees.
Gardening in May – a summary
And that concludes my May gardening update, even though it’s not been what I’d term a normal month of May in the garden. But I hope I’ve answered the most popular questions that people seem to be asking fellow gardeners:
- What should I be doing in the garden in May?
- What can you plant in the garden in May?
- Can you start a garden in May?
Have any of my favourite gardening tips for May inspired you to have a go at gardening? I do hope so, because as regular readers of my gardening blogs will know, my garden is my happy place and getting my hands dirty is one of my favourite acts of self-care. There’s something about being outside in nature and in contact with plants and the soil that puts every single worry to one side. As always, I hope you’ve enjoyed your virtual visit to our garden and orchard this month. And if you have, that you’ll join me again for my June garden update next time. Until then, stay safe, and I hope you’ll have an opportunity to get down and dirty and start growing outside too!
What are you growing in your garden or outside space this month? Are there any May garden questions you’d like some help with? And what’s your favourite thing about gardening in May?
* This post features affiliate links but all opinions are my own (see my Disclaimer).
May is one of my favourite months in the garden and your garden is really a showpiece! I love the wide variety of trees, shrubs, annuals and perinneals you’ve planted. There is really nothing quite as beautiful as watching a garden change. Thanks for sharing a lot of great information.
Ah, Jodie, that’s such a lovely thing to say, thank you so much! Yes, we are very lucky, there’s something quite magical about watching everything start to emerge this month 🙂
As someone who loves a garden but wants nothing to do with maintaining it, I’m vicariously doing so with your gardening posts.
I love these posts and strangely look forward to them!
Haha, please do continue to love a garden vicariously! 🙂
Hi Lisa.
Well, as so often when I read your posts, I have garden envy again! Does it take considerable effort or is it a case of little and often?
I have a couple of queries, if I may:
1. We were given some sweetpeas and have managed to get them started in small pots in the house. At what point should we transfer them outside? Are there any special requirements?
2. Lawns. If a lawn is in a poor state (bare patches, thin in areas, dandelions having non-socially distanced gatherings!) can it be recovered by re-seeding or is It best to give it up as a bad job and have it re-turfed? It was only turfed a couple of years ago but … well, lets just say I think you get what you pay for!
Hi Richie, thank you! In the beginning it was a lot of work but now, due to time constraints, it’s little and often. Most of what we’ve planted look after themselves, it’s only the annuals (flowers and veg) that need more work.
1. Sweet peas can go outside once you’re sure the last frosts are over. Once you have 4 pairs of real leaves (ie, not the starter leaves) pinch out the growing tip to encourage bushier rather than spindly growth. And tie them in to a wigwam of bamboo canes or hazel sticks. Plant them inside as they’ll grow out and up the supports. And keep picking the flowers daily to encourage new growth in due course.
2. Lawn – without seeing your lawn it’s hard to be definitive but I would say there are 2 options, (a) get it scarified and hollow-tine aerated then re-seeded (basically rips up the lawn and gets air and water into the soil), or (b) let it go wild, scatter some wildflower seeds or buy in some wildflower turf rolls. Less maintenance for you and brilliant for wildlife. Good luck!
I mean your garden is always a joy to see, Lisa! I love the clematis Montana and I am sure that passing by that sweet smell must be a great add on to the beauty of the flowers themselves! I didn’t know about NomowMay but it’s a great idea to provide food for bees. Absolutely in love with the bugs hotel, I was actually watching a program the other day where they were making different ones. Thank you so much for sharing these beautiful pictures x
Thank you so much, Cristina, that’s very kind. And yes, NoMowMay is such a good idea, anything that means less work for us is a bonus, even better if it helps wildlife! x
Yes there’s certainly been a LOT of rain and rubbish weather lately, hasn’t there? Definitely not ideal for Spring when you want to get out in the garden! I hope the coming weeks are better for you and you can spend more time gardening! I really love those trellis climber plants (you can tell I’m not a gardener can’t you?) I’d love something like that for the outside wall of my office xxx
I know, it’s been quite soggy, but at least I haven’t had to do any watering! I think some clematis and honeysuckle would be amazing for the outside wall of your office: colour and fragrance, what’s not to love? 🙂 xx
wow your garden is in full bloom! I love all of the different colours of your plants.
Rosie
Thank you, Rosie, yes, it is 🙂
I love all the flowers! I grew some pea shoots which were delicious a couple of weeks back 😍 I can’t really grow anything else because I only have a window sill and it’s filled with succulents. But, I can’t wait for next year when I have a garden & I’m gonna buy a trough to grow some veggies 🙂 x
Your succulents are gorgeous though, my indoor plant game is rubbish, I’m much better outside! That said, you could try hanging baskets in your windows to grow edible flowers and strawberries? Just don’t forget to water them! x
Great post! I think we were all expecting better weather this may 🙂 I love getting the insight on your gardening journey x
Thank you, Eleanor, and yes, it’s been rubbish weather so far! x
Impressive. Your garden is coming along nicely. I had mine looking pretty good last year, and then I moved, so having to start all over again. Thanks for the inspiration. Still deciding where to start.
Thank you – but actually starting again is pretty exciting, lots of new possibilities!
Your garden looks absolutely gorgeous! Thank you for sharing these beautiful photos with us xo
xoxo Olivia | http://www.oliviaandbeauty.com/
Thank you so much, I’m glad you enjoyed the update 🙂
The blossom is always so pretty. We have white blossom on our tree and it makes me smile every morning when I see it.
It’s such a quintessential sign of Spring, isn’t it? 🙂
We’ve had a few bits come out, mainly bluebells, the last of the daffs and some tulips! We’ve never grown much before xx
Bulbs are brilliant though, so easy, you can just plant and forget them, they’ll look after themselves. And you can get alliums for summer and gladioli and crocuses for autumn, so all year round colour! xx
You have some great recommendations here. We decided this year to support a local greenhouse/farm. They take orders every year for seedlings, and then the proceeds from everything that they sell goes to support their community garden efforts. We purchased a ton of vegetables and finally get to pick them up this week! I can’t wait to take our vegetable garden from empty to full of delicious homegrown options.
Oh, that’s such a great idea! I wish we had that around here, I’d love to be able to plant out some seedlings that someone else has nurtured to the optimum stage – can’t wait to see how you get on!
Lovely gardening post, I really like the idea of planting flowers
Thanks for sharing
https://uncuaderno4cero.wordpress.com/
Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Beautiful rhododendrons, your garden is so colourful,
love the flower wall. Very inspiring..
Thank you, Gabi, that’s very kind!
Your orchard is glowing, Lisa! The sparkles remind me of fairies, and your beautiful blooms and pond are as attractive.
I have never heard of a bee hotel or #NoMowMay but I love the concept and idea! A small thing like a patch of grass or extra flowers does wonders for helping the bees and birds work their magic with a little extra support.
We have planted a lovely lot of herbs this year, including tarragon, dill, sage, and lavender. While most of our started seedlings are not doing as well as they usually do, it is inspiring to find self-seeded tomato, dill, and cilantro already showing up in the garden!
Thank you for sharing your greening world. 🙂
Oh goodness, Jaya, thank you so much, what a lovely thing to say! And how exciting that you have so many self-seeded plants coming up too, especially tomatoes, which I always assumed needed lots of TLC to get started 🙂
You’ve got a beautiful garden! Love all your flowers! All the purple ones are so pretty! Can’t quite rmb their names even though I just read them! We have a few peas coming in our balcony only, your garden makes me envious! Great work there!
Thank you so much – and yes, aquilegias are a funny name to remember, aren’t they? 🙂
I can’t believe how much rain and snow and ice we’ve had this May! After such a lovely April too.
I definitely need to get a bug hotel – I even know where in the garden I’d put it. I’ve stopped planting mint in my herb garden, it always takes over! Now it has it’s own pot so it can’t go too wild, and is nearer to the kitchen door so I can more readily get to it.
Your garden as always looks amazing. The orchard is stunning with all the blossom!
Cora | https://www.teapartyprincess.co.uk/
Oh yes, do get a bug hotel, we’ve got two and I want to get more! Good idea about keeping mint in a pot, that’s what I used to do but somehow some got into the herb bed and I need to expel it all 🙂 Thank you, Cora, that’s very kind! x
I’m loving your garden Lisa! I always learn so much from reading your gardening posts! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
Thank you so much, Lucy, that’s so good to hear! x
Wow, these just look so beautiful. I love the clematis Montana Mayleen most especially, it reminds me of a flower here in the Philippines called “calachuchi.” Lovely garden, Lisa. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Monique – and that’s amazing, I’m off to Google calachuci now, I’m so intrigued!
I like tulips a lot, but the ones I have in the garden wilted away. I had no idea there are May-tulips. This means I will have to go to a gardening centre to see if I can find any tulips. They do keep for a long time in the garden.
You had a lovely idea to throw leftover cat food in the garden for the magpies. That’s so nice of you. I like Romanesco, but I think it would take too much space, considering my small garden.
I’ve enjoyed the update. xx
Our local garden centre still had a few left in pots – they’ve gone over but they’re still fine for planting out. And I have to confess, throwing cat food on the grass was really to stop our bin smelling but the magpies are happy so win, win! xx
Wow your garden looks absolutely stunning and massive. Did I spot a tiger in your orchard too? Our garden is looking a little unloved at the moment so I shall be using some of your tips. We have just bought a rhododendron Bush though which we have potted so it doesn’t get too huge (we don’t have a great deal of space)
We are lucky to have a large outside space (so different from my apartment window box for 15 years!) and yes, you did spot a tiger sculpture 🙂 Thank you, that’s very kind. Our rhodies were in pots for years before they went into the ground, so as long as yours doesn’t get pot bound and you give it an ericaceous liquid feed now and again, it should be fine 🙂
Your pictures are gorgeous- everything looks so lush and green! I’m so jealous of your garden!! I’ve recently started playing with my garden over the past couple years and this post really speaks to me with some great tips and tricks, as well as ideas! Thanks for sharing this.
Oh thank you so much, that’s very kind. And I love that you refer to gardening as playing – that’s spot on, gardening should absolutely be fun, not something to get stressed about!
Our carrots have just started growing, my rabbit loves the carrot tops so it is a win win!
Love, Amie ❤
The Curvaceous Vegan
Oh that’s so cute, what a lovely thing to do! x
As always, I really enjoyed reading your latest garden update. I love seeing how the plants have grown and all of the changes from one month to the next. It has been surprisingly warm here this week, which is very unusual but I am taking advantage of it and getting a bit of a start on the garden. Mostly planting things like spinach, potatoes and onions, and whatever else loves the cooler spring temps and can handle a frost if they happen. However, it’s been very dry this spring, so I am hoping for rain soon to at least fill up the rain barrels.
Thank you so much, Sarah! And your spring sounds like the complete opposite of ours – this time last year we were in shorts and vests, but now it’s too cold to go out without a jumper, never mind a rain jacket 🙁 Fingers crossed for warmer weather soon, so I can plant out my seedlings!
I really like these garden updates each month! Thank you for sharing this! The flowers look lovely and it’s really good that you have plenty of vegetables growing in your garden. Your garden is looking very nice!
Ah, I’m so pleased to hear that, thank you so much, I’m glad you enjoy them 🙂
Your garden looks lovely! May is a great month usually to spend and focus on the garden xx
I know, usually is the key word, haha, but thank you! x
LOVE this! Gorgeous flowers. I love may. Spring is my favourite. Thanks for this post! I’m recently getting more into plants and gardening.
Thank you so much, always glad to connect with a fellow gardener!
This post makes me crave a garden even more, me and my children grow things at home but then hand them over to my mum who then helps pot them. One day!
Ah, that’s lovely to hear – gardening together like that sounds so much fun!
You are lucky to have a passion for gardening, and it’s a great idea to feed leftovers to your garden residents. NOMowMay is impressive so that bees and birds can get enough food. I hope you will get more sun and less rain in the coming June. All tips are great, and bales of barley straw to keep the water clearer over summer is my absolute favorite.
Looking forward to your June gardening post 🙂
Thanks for sharing. xx
Thank you, Sara, that’s very kind, and yes, I am lucky, especially since we have such a large outside space! 🙂
The 3/4s of my garden that I worked on last year, is looking great this year. Hopefully I’ll have a full nice garden next year. Annoyingly wind and rain the day my cherry blossom tree blossomed, meant that didn’t last long.
Never heard of no mow may, my grass is about 50% dandelions already, after not mowing for 2 weeks out of laziness 🤣
I have a strong suspicion that #NoMowMay was dreamed up by men who wanted a break from cutting the grass every week!
Oh Lisa! Your garden is always beautiful. I liked looking at your garden. It always makes me feel happy. Again, thank you for sharing.
Ah, thank you, Fadima, that’s so lovely to hear!
Your garden looks beautiful, and I love the flowers! Thanks for sharing these amazing tips!
xoxo
Lovely
http://www.mynameislovely.com
Thank you, I’m so pleased you enjoyed the post 🙂
this is my first time visiting your blog
really love your garden, it is very beautiful
i love your detailed description as well
hope you have a great weekend!
Oh thank you so much, that’s very kind – and I’m so pleased you enjoyed your first visit to my blog!
May is such a great month for gardening, isn’t it? It is where most of your hard work starts coming to life, with everything opening up and blossoming. I always love your garden updates, as it makes me want to get out there and tend to the flowers haha! I’ve been on a mad one with buying flowers, I’ve managed to pick up some Bougainvillea from B&M. Keeping my fingers crossed that I can keep them alive in the typical British weather!
hanks fo sharing 🙂
Aimsy xoxo
Aimsy’s Antics
Oh that’s so exciting you’ve been buying flowers, now is definitely the time to get planting! And bougainvillea should be OK but you’ll need to bring them in at the sign of the first frosts 🙂 x
Wonderful photos 🙂
I’ve sown carrots for the first time in years, hoping they come to something.
Thank you, Nikki, fingers crossed!
I love that your garden is just blooming with all sorts of floral and veggies throughout the year! You have different colors going on! I am a big fan of the lilac bush! Even cool that you have a bee box going on too. Thanks for sharing all of these different options! Happy to see the bloom yearround!
Nancy ✨
Thank you so much, Nancy, that’s so kind of you! Yes, we are very lucky – apparently lilac is edible too, which I only found out a couple of days ago – who knew!
I absolutely adore your garden updates! Do you ever do any cooking with the wild garlic? We’ve got some growing in the woodland nearby, but I’ve always left it be as its out in the wild – that and can be easily mistaken for lily-of-the-valley!
Em x
Thank you, Em! And yes, we make pesto with our wild garlic. It’s planted near our lily of the valley so we can see which is which quite easily – but you could probably harvest a few wild leaves near you, and the scent would let you know whether or not it’s garlic! x
beautiful garden full of flowers Lisa! I’m thinking of having flowers in my garden too soon. I just love all the beautiful colors they bring!
Thank you, Liz, yes, they do bring a lot of joy!
Thanks for sharing, what is going on in your garden this month, I have just added some new plants to my patio including a sweet pepper plant, so I will how that grows, and whether it produces any peppers at all, some beans, sweet peas and a couple of flowers as well 🙂
Sweet pepper sounds interesting – we are growing chilli peppers again this year, although not much to see as yet!