Gardening, Flowers and House Plant Care
Spring is finally here!
There are 32 days and 21 hours left until Summer! What should you be doing in your garden right now? Check our May gardening guide here.
Spring Gardening - May
Wow! Is Spring is really here?
The month of May is a time when the weather can either turn your garden into an Eden, or a wasteland. Be aware of the
weather forecasts and trends.. Stay aware of your local weather forecasts,
trends and warnings.
The USDA hardiness zone maps are based on past
years average temperatures, and can't predict a freak frost or snowstorm, or a prolonged spring drought.
If a frost or freezing weather is in your forecast, protect your tender plants with a mulch, newspapers, light cloth or some type of overnight protection or a frost cap made with a roll of poly film tented over the plants.
Be sure to remove the plastic tent as soon as the danger of frost is over
or your plants will bake in the sun.
If your weather is sunny and dry, don't neglect your watering! Most flowers and shrubs need about an inch of water each week to perform well, and especially newly planted seedlings will perish if their roots are allowed to dry out.
Bugs and Slugs in the Garden
In some areas, warm winter weather could produce an exceptionally good crop of mosquitoes in many gardens. Aside from the usual precaution of eliminating sources of standing water or using chemical methods, there are many types of garden plants that repel mosquitoes.
Here in the Pacific Northwet, the worst garden pests right now are the slugs and snails...
and they are busily propagating themselves!
A single lawn prawn can successfully remove an entire row of seedlings from your garden in hours.
He can turn a perfect plant into swiss cheese over night and return to the safety of his hideaway,
leaving you to wonder what the heck happened...
Here is more information than you ever wanted to know about
dealing with the slugs and snails that are eating your garden.
Shrubs and trees
Early flowering deciduous shrubs such as Forsythias, Weigela, and Spiraea should be pruned back when they have finished blooming. Cut back a third of the oldest canes to ground level, then cut back one third of the remaining branches by one third of their height. Remove the wilting seedheads from Rhododendrons and Azaleas, so that the plants energy can go to foliage growth and next years flowers, rather than seeds.
Work lime in the soil around your Hydrangeas to produce pink flowers or Aluminum Sulphate for blue. Remove any sucker growths from fruit trees as soon as they appear. Keep a vigilante eye on the roses. Keep them sprayed for aphids and other pests and diseases such as black spot.
Pines and other conifers can be kept to a compact size by pinching off the new growth 'candles'. Lilacs should be pruned lightly after they finish blooming, removing sucker growths and dead blooms.. Feed lilacs in May with a good all purpose 10-10-10 fertilizer after they have finished blooming. If your soil has an acidic pH, work a little lime into the soil as well.
Inspiration in the Garden
May is also a time of gardening inspirations and dreams. Look around yourself and notice what your neighbors are growing in their gardens and what they are creating in their landscapes. Think of how you might utilize some of their ideas along with your own brainstorms to make your garden just a lil bit better.
Gardening for Beginners
If you are a new or less experienced gardener who wants to start a new garden for the first time, I suggest that you begin here...
- Gardening 101: Garden Basics: Zone maps, charts, guides and more.
- Gardening 101: Deciding what kind of garden you'd like to grow.
- Gardening 101: Preparing the planting site to grow your new garden.
- Gardening 101: How to plant container grown plants into the garden
- Gardening 101: How to sow and grow new plants from seed.
- Gardening 101: Planting and Growing a Vegetable Garden.
- How to grow, maintain and care for your House Plants