What to do in your garden in May

Each season brings its own “to do” list in the garden. Here’s our checklist for this month’s most important garden tasks

It’s time to…

Get tender plants like dahlias out into the ground after frosts have passed.
Plant hanging baskets - tumbler tomatoes or chillies make displays good enough to eat.
Stake tall plants like delphiniums with twiggy hazel sticks to stop them falling over.
Keep on top of annual weeds by hoeing them off regularly before they can set seed.
Feed daffodil foliage as it is dying down to help them flower even better next year.

Projects for this month

Here are a few May projects that you can do to help keep your garden looking its best for the rest of the season.

Sow flowers for wildlife

Attracting wildlife into your garden is great for pest control - birds, hoverflies and lacewings eat aphids and blackfly by the dozen. Flowers rich in nectar and seeds bring them in from miles around, so if you choose your plants carefully your garden will be buzzing.

Five wildlife-friendly flowers to sow now:

Foxgloves. Tall flowers for a shady spot. The brown speckles on their purple flower trumpets are landing lights for bumblebees, guiding them to the nectar inside.
Forget-me-nots. Tiny blue flowers with a yellow eye on low-growing clumps appear in late spring, and are much loved by butterflies, hoverflies and bees.
Teasels. Their weird, architectural flowers are a one-stop shop for all sorts of wildlife - bumblebees and butterflies flock to them, and goldfinches can’t resist the seeds.
Honesty. Great for early-season butterflies like the orange-tip; bullfinches arrive later to strip the silvery seed heads for the goodies inside.
Sunflowers. Pick ‘Russian Giant’ for triffid-like plants 3m (9ft) high or more - the dinner-plate flower heads will be smothered in bees and butterflies, and birds adore the seeds.

Pulverise your pests

At this time of year, a legion of creepy-crawlies is on the march looking for plants to nibble. Don’t reach for the spray gun: there are plenty of ways to control pests without using chemicals.

Slugs and snails:

Sink yoghurt pots into the ground and pour in beer to send slugs to a boozy end.
Go on the prowl at dusk, armed with a torch, and pick up every slug you see.
Put rings of coffee grounds, bran or eggshells around plants so slugs can’t get across.

Aphids:

Squash them between your fingers. It may be messy, but it’s effective.
Direct a jet of water at them to knock them off the shoot tips.
Spray with environmentally friendly soap solution, available from garden centres.

Vine weevil:

encourage wildlife into your garden - birds and ground beetles scoff weevils and grubs.
smear a layer of petroleum jelly around pots to prevent the flightless weevils crawling in.
water on microscopic nematodes, available from garden centres, to attack grubs for you.

Hedge your bets

Early summer is prime hedge-cutting season, but before you rev up the hedge trimmer spare a thought for wildlife. Hedges are havens, providing protection, food and nesting sites for all sorts of creatures. Taking a few simple precautions can make all the difference:

Check for nests before you begin - it’s illegal to cut a hedge if you know birds are nesting in it. Look deep into the hedge as they’re often well-hidden.
Consider trimming with shears, so wild animals have a chance to get away. It’s better for your carbon emissions than electric or petrol powered trimmers, too.
If you can bear to, let your hedge grow a bit woolly until late July when birds have finished nesting.
Choose slow-growing hedges, like yew, which only needs trimming a couple of times a year.
If you have room, go the whole hog and plant a wildlife hedge - mix up native species like hawthorn, dog rose and guelder rose for a berry-rich, beautiful hedge wildlife will love.

Start a pond

Even the smallest pond is a magnet for wildlife. If space is at a premium, create a mini-pond out of an oak half-barrel – here’s how:

1. Get an old off-cut of butyl pond liner and fit it to the inside of the half-barrel, making sure it’s worked well into the corners. Staple it to the wood just below the top edge of the barrel to keep it secure.

2. Fill with rainwater from a water butt if you can, not tap water - there are fewer chemicals and rainwater already contains microscopic organisms, getting your pond’s ecosystem off to a flying start.

3. Put in a stack of bricks, or a ramp covered in chicken wire, right to the surface of the water. This ensures small creatures can crawl out if they fall in, and gives access to frogs, toads and birds looking for a drink.

4. Plant up with dwarf plants specially bred to grow in small ponds: choose from miniature waterlily (Nymphaea pygmaea) ’Alba’, tiny bulrush (Typha minima) and marsh marigold (Caltha palustris). Don’t forget to add a few strands of an oxygenating plant such as Elodea canadensis.