What to plant in May
Gardeners are keen to get planting but we need to keep an eye on the weather - so what can we plant in May?
Plant outside now ...
In the vegetable plot: Broad beans, Runner beans, Peas, Onions, Garlic, Carrots, salad crops, Leeks, Strawberries.
In the garden: all hardy perennials and evergreens. These are plants you may buy from the garden center or online, which are described as hardy. In terms of annuals you can plant out Sweet peas, and Sow hardy annuals where they are to flower (for an explanation of hardy) such as Sunflowers, Cornflowers, Zinnia, Nasturtium, Calendula, Nigella, and Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’.
Even in May the weather can still be cold and some plants are best under glass and / or delay planting out at the end of the month (now-ish) or early June. These are the more tender vegetables which are: French Beans, Squashes, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Melon, Chillies, Aubergine Sweet corn, Courgettes and Sweet peppers.
May is tomato time. Buy plants to grow on in the greenhouse, or late in May when all risk of frost has passed tomatoes can be planted out in the veg plot in a sunny spot. Tomatoes need attention to produce a good crop, and there is plenty advice available at your local garden centre or online.
By the very end of May/early June everywhere is usually frost free, and it is safe to plant out tender bedding plants, and non-hardy plants such as Agapanthus (some), Canna Lilly, Dahlias.
A job for May, whatever the weather, is to stake perennials. If you leave this task too late you will end up trying to persuade the delicate stems of a Peony through the hoops of a plant support.
If you planted Dahlias earlier in the year, the growth takes about six weeks to reach to soil surface, which can be around May time so if there is a frost it will need to be protected.
Climbing plants will be putting on spurts of growth in the warmer weather and the new growth has to be tied in. This supports the plant, and enables you to guide the plant to grow where you want it to and not where it may want to go.
May is the time you can, if the shrub needs it, prune early spring flowering shrubs. These shrubs are pruned only after flowering, so it depends whether your shrub has finished flowering. Pruning helps to stop the shrub getting too big for its space and to shape it. If you been admiring a spring flowering shrub, but at the same time thinking it is getting too big, now is the time to attack.