Must Do Gardening Tips for May

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

Must Do Gardening Tips for May



Rita Edwards gives her sound advice.

  1. Be careful of late frosts, cover tender plants with fleece.
  2. Hold hanging baskets back till the end of this month, as show people do.
  3. Check roses for black spot.
  4. Sow nasturtium seeds in gaps as ground cover.
  5. Pinch out tips of fuchsias to form a a bushier plant.

Mat Holland of Dyffryn has his say.

  1. Leave daffs to die down for at least six weeks after dead heading.
  2. Take fuchsia cuttings and just plant in ground around mother plant, so you know what plant it came from
  3. Plant runner beans seeds direct into rows, for a later crop.
  4. Dead head tulips before they set seed.
  5. Make sure all plants that need support are staked by now.

 

Advice on controlling pests without resorting to chemicals has TV gardening personalities telling us that we need to strike a balance with nature and learn to live with these pests. The R H S has declared slugs are no longer pests. If my garden was the size of a Tesco car park I’m sure the critters could munch away without causing me too much concern. On the average plot a pest infection can be devastating, ruining the growing season.

These same people have said that if you have a problem with aphids you need to buy plants that attract ladybirds. For goodness sake if you have aphids you will definitely attract ladybirds, who will then breed and whose larvae are voracious aphid eaters. All without splashing out on special plants.

Another stunner of an idea was to attract more birds to your garden so they could eat the slugs. Be honest, have you seen garden birds eat slugs, because I haven’t. The best animals to have around your garden to help control slug problems are hedgehogs, frogs and toads. A lot of Wenvoe residents have hedgehog boxes and this has resulted in the village becoming a hotspot for these mammals which is bad news for slugs. Frogs and toads spend very little time in water, they prefer a damp area and cover. Toads only use the water in the mating season so you only need a small pond to accommodate these amphibians. Helen, Hugh & Mathew of Vennwood have foxes visiting their garden taking care of their Gastropods. The slug problem has been with gardeners and growers forever so the balance must still be ok. Just one more thing, the French won’t even eat them.

Right then – are we ready to plant out knowing we will have a fight on our hands to keep the plants safe? If you can be patient and hold back your bedding plants a little while, the warmer soil will give them a good start. As has been said many times, to get the best from your hanging basket display keep them sheltered until the very end of May. Sow some hardy annuals direct into the garden where there are gaps to fill. With the weather warming up and less rainfall the pots will need extra attention, try not to let them dry out or the plants will not recover to their full potential. Spring flowering shrubs that have finished blooming need to be cut back as soon as possible. Weeding is one of the tasks that has to be done but we don’t enjoy. You can keep pulling them up but your back won’t thank you for it, the best is always little and often on dry days with a Dutch hoe, just keep cutting them off and it will weaken perennial weeds and kill annual ones. Leave the waste to shrivel on the soil but do this before they set seed.

Allotment holders are busy as usual with this years rhubarb looking good throughout April. Eric & Joyce donated some of their crop to the Wenvoe Wild life Group to sell at the plant sale in April. The allotmenteers are obviously well informed about the fact that bare soil is the major factor in soil erosion as there very few patches with nothing growing. The library will be running the Village show again this year and Gordon Jones is intent on keeping his prize veg a secret with an extra high fence and a guard cat.

Take care and happy gardening