May is when all the work youve put into your yard over the years starts showing.
Go zone by zone and test each of your lines.
If you use a hose bib setup, get it up and running, and then check it.
In either case, it will take one fall task off your list and keep the garden looking tidier.
Your garden center can help identify which fertilizer is best for the trees you have.
Tulips need their leaves to come back next year, so let them compost in place.
Once the foliage has yellowed, its ok to divide or move the bulbs.
you could also plant summer bulbs like dahlias and cannas now, if the risk of frost is gone.
If youd like them to bloom this summer, youll want to get this task done in May.
As you plant, ensure youre using slow release fertilizer in the ground where you plant.
Look for signs of stress or pests and ensure youre treating them with appropriate treatments.
Your garden center can help.
Begin hardening off vegetables like tomatoes, pepper and eggplant as appropriate.
Perennial vegetables like asparagus and artichokes should be active now.
Remember to harvest asparagus daily, taking only spears that are larger than your pinky.
Once spears become thinner, its time to leave the plant alone for next year.
Both asparagus beds and artichokes will benefit from a spring fertilizer.
By mid to late May, almost all regions should be planting their warn weather crops.
Tomatoes, eggplant and peppers, but also beans, corn, cucumber and everything else.
If you planted potatoes in the spring, its likely time tohill upearth around the sprouts.
Thin out your strawberry beds ofrunners.
Each spring the beds much be thinned to create better and larger fruit.
you’re able to give away the runners or plant them elsewhere.
Pest control
Reduce snail and slug populations by putting out traps and going on regular evening hunts.
Doing this now, as the rains cease, will greatly reduce problems later this summer.
Hang pheromone traps in your fruit trees now, which will control pests this summer and protect your fruit.
