Gardening: 4 Things To Do in Your Garden in May

May is a busy month in the garden, no matter where you live. Whatever your gardening passion is—vegetables, flowers, roses, shrubs, and trees— it’s time to put on your gardening gloves and get to work.

Get Out the Hanging Baskets

Hanging Baskets are a great way to add some style to any home. Hang floral hanging baskets on porches, patios, and pergolas to brighten them up. Hanging baskets, which are usually filled to the full with geranium, verbena, calibrachoa, petunia, annual phlox, or other flowers, take little maintenance to keep them looking fantastic all summer. To keep them looking their best, water them every day and feed them a weak dose of liquid fertilizer every 10 days.

To foster the growth of fresh blooms, remove fading flowers. Clipping dead flowers from your baskets help make them look neater.

Spice Up Your Kitchen Garden

Basil, dill, rosemary, marjoram, cilantro, and fennel are all frost-sensitive herbs that can be planted now. These herbs require at least 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight per day to thrive. They require soil that drains well and does not become muddy after rain. Alternatively, you can grow them in planters outside your kitchen door and snip fresh herbs as needed.

Morning is the greatest time to collect herbs since the moisture and oils in the leaves are at their peak. Harvest as soon as the dew has dried.

Get Pruning

If you wish to shape early-flowering shrubs like forsythia, azalea, and lilac, prune them now (just after they finish blooming). You'll be removing growing flower buds for next year if you wait more than three or four weeks after the shrubs flower. For a more natural look, always use pruning shears rather than a hedge trimmer, and cut the branches off at varying lengths inside the bush. Avoid giving your landscape a major makeover.

Cut the limbs back to the ground if you have an old, severely overgrown shrub, such as lilac, to rejuvenate the plant. Flowers won't appear for a few years, but the plant will continue to develop from the root.

Mulch, Mulch, Mulch

Mulch your garden with several inches of compost, pine needles, shredded bark, grass clippings, straw, or even newspaper to keep your garden (and your back) healthy. During the hot months, the mulch keeps the soil moist and prevents weeds from taking over. It will be easy to pull weeds that grow. The mulch also adds organic matter to your soil as it decomposes.

Some mulches are more durable than others. Shredded bark and pine straw, for example, are great for the land because they only need to be renewed every few years. Use mulch that decomposes quickly, such as grass clippings or straw, in vegetable and flower beds. This will make it easier to plant new plants.