Essential Gardening Tasks to Tackle This May

May has arrived, bringing gardening season with it. With longer days and warmer sunshine, it's the perfect time to prepare your garden for summer dining and entertaining.

1. Tie in Climbers

   This month, your climbers will experience substantial growth. Use twine to tie them to wires or a trellis, and keep the stems as horizontal as possible to promote more flowering.

2. Prune Spring shrubs

   
   

   

   Choisya ternata in my E5 garden

This month, lightly prune spring-flowering shrubs like Choisya and Forsythia after they finish blooming. You can expect Choisya to produce another set of flowers later in the season.

3. Clean up your pond

Wildlife pond in my E5 garden

Use a sieve to eliminate pond weed, algae, and blanket weed from your ponds. Ensure you place any removed debris by the pond's edge so that any creatures can return to the water.

4. Monitor for aphids

   

   Rosa Ghislaine de Feligonde in my N12 Dog Friendly Garden

   Inspect new growth on roses for aphids and either remove them by hand or use an organic spray. Whenever possible, cultivate plants that attract aphid predators like ladybirds or hoverflies, such as umbellifers like Achillea or Angelica.

5 No mow May (June, July, August, September, October)

Lawn in my E11 Naturalistic Planting Design

Traditionally, May is considered the 'no mow' month for your lawn. However, I suggest taking it a step further by replacing your lawn with a nature-friendly tapestry or wildflower lawn. This alternative demands significantly less maintenance and supplies nectar for insects all year round.

Tapestry lawn in my E11 Naturalistic Planting Design

Delight in the garden during May!