May is the time to...

Fall in love with early camellias… and plant a hedge of your favourites. Hunt out less common autumn glories: Clematis tangutica, with its feathery seed heads that hang all through winter; the glowing gold and orange of witch-hazel leaves; feathery blooms of goldenrod. Harvest fat pumpkins, a million chokos, late apples and pears, pomegranates and orange persimmons. Plant fast-growing wombok, mitsuba, mizuna, Chinese bok choy, small red radishes, broccoli and early onions. Feed lawns and water in well for winter.