Home & Garden
10 things you should do in your garden in May
With summer well behind us, it’s really time to get back into the garden and prepare for the winter months ahead. Here’s our autumn garden to-do list.
- Collect fallen autumn leaves for your compost bin.
- In cool or harsh climates, move cold-sensitive/fragile pot plants into sheltered positions.
- Plant new trees, shrubs, climbers, annuals and perennials.
- Divide overgrown perennial plants, collect seeds and prune those that have finished flowering.
- Trim evergreen shrubs that need tidying.
- If you’re planting spring bulbs, you better do it right now!
- In veggie beds, clear out any leftover summer veggies and enrich soil with compost and/or manure to replenish nutrients that have been stripped during harsh summer months. Replant with cool-season vegetables such as onions, garlic, shallots, spinach, broad beans and broccoli.
- Citrus trees need light pruning to remove any dead material and water shoots.
- Fertilise azaleas, camellias, rhododendrons, gardenias, magnolias, daphnes and pieris.
- Cooler months are an ideal time to give your lawn some TLC. A monthly dose of fertiliser during autumn will thicken up lawn and help turf in winter. Give it a deep watering for drier gardens every two weeks.
Check out the latest catalogue from Plants Plus here for some great prices on some of these plants as well as more tips and inspiration for your garden.
Related links:
10 creative garden container ideas you’ll love
8 great uses for Epsom salt in the garden