May is an important month to get your summer garden established. Its an ideal month to plant everything you want in your garden before hot temperatures set in. Here are some timely plant and garden related tips from the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture:
Odds & Ends
- Keep an eye on watering everything which is newly planted. It doesn’t take much for new little transplants to dry out and die before they have a chance to get established. Check everyday for adequate moisture until plants take-off and start to grow.
Shrubs & Trees
- Early May is a good time to cut back any woody perennials that need it, such as rosemary, rue, lavender, Santolina and Artemisia. If done before the danger of frost has passed, new growth may appear, and a freeze can kill that new growth and sometimes the entire plant.
- Prune spring-flowering shrubs (azaleas, flowering quince, Forsythia and Loropetalum) soon after they finish flowering, but only if they need it. To keep them from looking like a meatball, follow the taller branches down into the shrub and cut just above a joint.
- A good option for Loropetalums that have outgrown their space is to prune them into a tree-form. They easily can be limbed up by removing lower branches.
Perennials, Annuals & Bulbs
- Plant butterfly weed (Asclepias), parsley, dill, rue and pipevine to encourage butterflies in your garden. The foliage of these plants provides food for the caterpillars.
- Early May is a good time to cut back any woody perennials that need it, such as rosemary, rue, lavender, Santolina and Artemisia. If done before the danger of frost has passed, new growth may appear, and a freeze can kill that new growth and sometimes the entire plant.
- Deadhead or prune back spent flowers on your perennials. This will manicure your garden and can stimulate reblooming of delphinum and columbine as well as other perennials.
- If your peonies fail to flower this month, it could be that they are planted too deep. They should be planted 2″ deep and receive at least 6 hrs. of sunlight.
- Direct seed sunflowers in your garden and stagger their planting by every week or two through July so you have flowers until frost.
- As the days get hotter and your pansies show stress, remove them and replace with summer annuals.
- Stake tall growing perennials such as foxglove and true lilies to prevent them from lodging.
Fruits & Veggies
- Fertilize strawberry plants after their fruit has been harvested with 2 lbs. of 10-10-10 per 100 sq. ft.
- Thin (pick off) excess fruits from apple, pear and peach trees to a ratio of one fruit per 6-8 inches of branch