Ilona’s Garden

May

Garden tips and schedule of tasks for May:

Mother’s Day is the big garden store/planting day around these parts of Ohio. This is high gardening season - everything gets planted this month- perennials, annuals, vegetables.

Get all the weeding done that you can- a head start on the weeds is never enough, but it spares you work in the hot summer months.

You can fertilize just about everything.

Mowing the grass begins in earnest this month; keep grass at 2½” height.

Perennials can still be planted and divided this month. May is ideal for taking cuttings of new growth on lavender and pinks for rooting new plants. Considering layering a favorite shrub or perennial.

Deadhead spent bulb blooms- send the strength back to the bulb. That also means don’t remove the foliage- let it die down naturally.

Plant caladium and tuberous begonias, and all summer-flowering bulbs such as gladiolas and dahlias after last frost date. ( See the list above).

Put together your container and porch plantings. After the frost dates take your houseplants outside.

Vegetable Garden:

Sow corn, cucumber, and melon directly in the garden.

Garden tip: old adage says to plant corn as soon as oak leaves are the size of a mouse ear

If your ground is warm enough- go ahead and put those tomatoes in the ground.

Tomato plants root all along the stem- lay them in horizontally to get some of that stem to root and give the plant an extra boost.

Trees

Plant trees, still, but this is the last of spring… if you wait too long it is better to wait all the way ’til fall time.

Fertilize trees now.

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