How to garden in May
The real list of what to do and what not to do in the garden this month. Plus: RHS Chelsea Flower Show updates
It’s May
And all of a sudden, we’re in FULL GARDENING MODE.
Can you believe it’s already here? It only seems like yesterday that we were all huddled up, waiting for the first glimmer of spring bulbs to take us through the early grey days of the year, and I was revealing the first plans for the 2025 RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Now look where we are. The roses are in bud, the clematis are out, and the air is warm. Plus, we’ve actually started building that garden, so do look out for the weekly updates if you’re interested in coming along on the Chelsea journey.
This week, we’ve got a list of gardening jobs that we can be getting on with, along with those all-important not-to-dos:
I’ve been really looking forward to this week’s post, which includes:
My May Garden To Do and Not to Do lists. The ground is now definitely warm enough to sit on it with your bare bottom.
One of the Not-to-dos refers to the whole To Mow/ Not To Mow debate we chatted about here, and I’m fascinated to hear your thoughts on it.
I’m back from the flying visit to Philadelphia, where I met lots of US Gardening Mind members - what a fabulous day we had. And it worked: I came straight from the airport to the Chelsea building site, and I’ve got an update for you on RHS Chelsea Flower Show progress.
Show Us Your Plots is our weekly get-together on the Chat: this appears every Sunday so do look out for it. If you haven’t used the Chat before, think of it as our very own WhatsApp group - have a play-about with making comments and uploading photos - it’s fun. Also, if you’re coming to the Chelsea Flower Show, the Chat is where you can liaise with other Gardening Minds about meeting up on whichever day you’re there. I’m looking forward to meeting lots of you there.
Before we get to those jobs, here are links to some posts which I think could be useful at this time of year:
If you’re planting a new flowerbed and have some roses in there, you might like this planting approach which means you never have to spray for aphids: How to keep your roses disease-free.
Have you got a really annoying sloping garden or garden area that you just don’t know how to deal with? This might help.
The Small Garden Design Course is here. You can start this at any time. Please do come along and join in whenever you feel like it.
The wisteria are looking INCREDIBLE right now - if you missed the wisteria post, you can find it here: The best wisteria for you garden.
It’s sowing time
And with a mini heatwave in the UK, it certainly feels as if the soil is warm enough. If you’re wondering whether it’s the right time to get those seeds in, you’ll know the right moment when you see tiny little weed seeds through the garden germinating and starting to pop up. There are a couple of other time-tested and trusted ways of seeing if the soil is warm enough: I remember someone testing the warmth of the soil with their bare elbow in the way you’d test a baby’s bathwater.
But even better than that, you could go for the good old farmer’s method of parking your naked bottom on the soil. If it doesn’t feel too cold on your derrière, then it’s time to sow.
So let’s get out there, shall we?
… let’s continue to garden gently, garden kindly, in a way that makes us feel good. Let’s congratulate ourselves on what we’ve learned over the winter hibernation, and let’s get out there and garden, at the speed that works best for you. You might achieve one thing, you might achieve a dozen: whichever it is, you’ll have been outside and been in the light and in with Nature. That’s guaranteed to make you feel better.
I’m watering pots and new plants. Everything else gets left to fend for itself, including the roses. If you don’t treat these plants meanly, they’ll learn to depend on you for their daily drink. But if you’re brutal from the beginning, they’ll send their long tap roots way down deep, seeking out water for themselves and becoming self-sufficient.
This is the latest addition to my garden, and as it was only planted in April, this will be getting a regular watering when the ground around it feels dry to the touch.
This rose is a beauty: it’s a really vigorous and healthy climber, with . gorgeous small, light pink flowers in clusters which appear throughout the summer until the autumn. A brilliant rose for a pergola or arch as the stems are nice and