May is the best month of the year for gardening in my opinion; everything is suddenly shooting up as if out of nowhere, there’s lots already in bloom and even more promise of the months ahead.

I’m a bit late with this month’s garden post, but ‘sorry not sorry’ because it’s allowed this little pink azalea in the photo above to come into bloom! It has such a lovely colour - it was practically dead when we moved in here and has taken so well to being moved from the pot to the ground (which is more on the neutral side of things than the acid soil it prefers, so I had my doubts as to how well it would do)

I’ve made some good progress on the lawn maintenance I mentioned last month - after some intensive raking with our lawn rake, I ended up borrowing my Dad’s electric rake which made for a far easier job. After removing so much dead grass and moss, the lawn is looking so much greener and hopefully will improve as the season goes on.

 

 

The other big job has been unveiling all the garden furniture - major excitement! Our patio was laid last summer and I don’t feel we really got the most use out of it, so I’m really excited to get out there all the time this year, especially now Max is happier to run around the garden (last year he was very unhappy about the feel of grass!)

 

 

April is always tulip month - all of mine are now out and we have a lovely display of pink and white.

May and June is peony season and I’m always sad that it’s so short lived. We have two types of peony in our garden - a lovely deep pink one that I don’t know the name of (if you recognise it, do let me know), and a fluffy pink Sarah Bernhardt. It looks like the deep pink will be blooming any day now!

 

 

This acer has suddenly become a riot of colourful red!

The alliums (purple sensation) are up and just opening and should be out very soon. I love their big pom pom heads, they make me smile every time I see them.

 

The Vegetable Garden

The onions in the raised beds are doing fantastically. So much so that I’ve removed the protective netting as they were growing up through it. Fingers crossed for a good crop come autumn.

 

 

The potatoes in bags are also doing well - the leaves keep on coming, so I’m keeping them well topped up with compost.

My leek seedlings are now ready to be hardened off, and I’ve been standing them outside for a few hours every day in preparation for planting out later this month.

 

 

Apparently it’s going to be a bad year for slugs, according to this from the BBC. I have a few plants that seem particularly attractive to slugs, including hostas and lupins, so last week I applied Nematodes to our garden. Nematodes are an organic pest control method that kill slugs beneath the soil in one week. Fingers crossed for my hostas which have only just started to emerge - I’ll let you know how I get on!

 

Jobs for the Garden in May

• Plant out dahlia tubers for a summer display once the danger of frost has passed
• Plant up summer bedding plants in pots or in the ground
• May is still a great time for dividing perennials
• Hostas can be divided as they begin to grow up
• Keep up the weeding, but watch out for perennials coming up - I nearly took up an echinacea I’d forgotten about earlier this month!
• Try to get into a routine of mowing the lawn weekly