May Gardening To Do List

Monthly Calender for Newbie Gardener’s in the Southern Hemisphere.

May Notes.

This is the time to prepare for winter, sort out wind and rain protection. May can be wet & blustery, dodge the high winds and do what you can.
Prepare beds, mulch over wintering vegetables to protect from the elements and keep them warmer over winter, as the soil is now cooling down.

Time to plant cover crops to let your soil rest. For those who don?t believe in giving the soil a rest…

PLANTING
Sow Direct Seed for:
Vegetables:
Carrots
Beetroot
Celery
Parsnips
Peas
Broccoli
Garlic
Onions
Open Chinese Lettuce
Spinach
Turnips in early May
Herbs:
Rocket, mustard lettuce and mizuna under the protection of cloches

Sow or plant out:
Vegetables:
Strawberry runners in frost free areas
Winter salad crops under the protection of cloches
Spring Onions
Early onions beginning of May
Flowers:
Pansy
Viola
Subterranean clover in herbal ley, last chance for this.

In frost free areas: Also sow:
Vegetables:
Broad beans
Peas
Lettuce
Grain crops
Radicchio
Rocket
Herbs:
Chamomile
Calendula
Nigella
Flowers:
Ageratum
Aurora Daisy
Cornflower
Dianthus
Nemesia
Statice
Sweet pea
In frosty areas sow: Broad beans, peas a& sweetpea late in May

Grow a Green Manure Crop or Cover Crop of: Faba bean, field pea, barley, or oats.
In frost free areas grow: Cereal rye

In frost areas grow: Annual lupin
In suitable soils grow: Alfalfa, fenugreek, vetch, amaranth or buck wheat.

GENERAL
Prune: Lightly prune tall tibouchina after flowering. Any unwanted growth anywhere.
Cut Back: Dahlias, lift tubers if necessary.

Cut Down: Asparagus when yellow, mulch to protect from frost
Mulch: Give a good layer to fig, mango, paw paw & avocado trees to protect from frost.
Top up compost on asparagus beds
Prepared beds to prevent them drying out and keep them warm

Prepare Beds For:
Deciduous plantings
Potatoes in frost free areas

Take cuttings of: Roses and Plum rootstock. (soak in willow water & place into sand)

Tidy up perennial beds

Cover compost bins to protect against winter weather

Collect manure and leaf mulches, pop in to covered bins and these will decompose just in time for spring.

PEST CONTROL
Not really a great deal to do here if your soil has been well looked after during the summer months

MOISTURE CONTROL
Mulch over wintering vegetables and around fruit trees
Give anything that needs it a layer of manure, it is best to pop it under the mulch

HARVESTING
Time to take cuttings as needed
Kiwifruit
Passionfruit
Crab Apples
Persimmons
Quinces
Crab Apples

FEEDING
On Damp soil: Apply fertilizer tea to: Lettuce if necessary.
Apply half strength tea every 2 weeks to spinach until thinned
Apply seaweed tea to: Potato beds for July planting

ORCHARD JOBS
MONTHLY liquid seaweed/worm tea on trees in Orchard this helps prevent disease, strengthens cell tissue & soil micro-organisms.
Remove any trees that need replacing.
Prepare sites for new plantings next month
Clean up generally, replant as necessary
Manure and mulch as necessary