Now that May is drawing to a close, it’s vital to make sure you’ve completed all of your garden duties in preparation for June. June’s the time of year when summer finally begins to kick in and the weather (touch wood) becomes much hotter allowing plenty of warm evenings in the garden. It’s crucial to stay on top of any summer garden preparation in order to avoid playing catch up later on and risk creating even bigger problems to solve and most importantly, missing out on those beautiful summer days and mild evenings.
If you’ve been trying to keep up to date, then you should have already scarified and aerated your lawn in order to kill any lawn moss and make way for beautiful fresh new grass that wants to escape from the soil thanks to a working fertiliser. If you haven’t, then you’re a few weeks behind and need to catch up quick to stay on top of things. For the best advice on how to kill lawn moss and start off your grass re-growth, read our blog post ‘Greenkeeper’s Secrets: The Best Way to Kill Lawn Moss’.
In May it’s very important to regulate your lawn mowing. Weekly mowing is ideal but often this routine can be interrupted depending on weather conditions. If the grass is wet, then try to at least stick to fortnightly mowing.
When starting this routine it’s essential to begin with your cutting heights relatively high, taking no more than ⅓ of the length off at any one time. This is because the grass will become stressed which can increase the chances of pest and disease problems (not what you want after weeks of preparation to rid your lawn of this problem). As the weather warms up the grass will start to grow faster, enabling you to gradually reduce the height of cut to give you your desired finish. A great tip is to keep your lawnmower cutting blades sharp, as dull blades will wound the grass making it more vulnerable and susceptible to pest disease.
It’s a great idea to begin edging your lawn every two weeks after mowing as this will provide a well-manicured, neat and tidy look. It prevents any grass growing outside the confines of the edges and looks fantastic. As well as edging the lawn, it can often be a nice idea to then edge around any trees, flower beds, walls and fences. A great edger to invest in is the Honda Versatool edger attachment. The Honda Versatool is a fantastic multi-tool with a whole array of attachments, and the edger works wonders when creating neat lines around your garden.
The last week of May is the time you want to start planting your flower beds, which means now is the time to prepare annual and perennial beds. This is done by tilling the
soil with a mini tiller such as the Honda FG110 mini tiller, and then adding rich compost. Tilling the soil will aerate the bed and promote further growth. Before planting, it’s a good idea to check the weather forecast to make sure there is no oncoming frosts ahead. When buying plants for your flower bed, choose green bushy ones with plenty of flower buds rather than open flowers to allow them to grow freely once planted. About an hour before you plant them, water your plants in their containers and soak the fresh soil you recently tilled. Plant the flowers at the recommended distance and then lightly sprinkle with water once more. After you’ve planted them keep an eye on the weather to make sure there are no surprise frosts on the way, if there is, then cover the plants with a fleece until the frost has cleared.
May is the ideal time to cut any evergreen hedges you have in your garden, such as such as lonicera, box and yew. Smaller hedges can be trimmed with shears, however larger hedges are better to be trimmed with a hedge trimmer. We have a very large selection of hedge trimmers at Just Lawnmowers such as the Husqvarna 122HD45 hedge cutter for only £229.00. To see our full range of hedge trimmers, click here.
When it comes to your vegetable garden, May is a vital month. There are lots of things which you can start to plant and sow. May is the time to plant Brussels sprouts, celery,
courgettes, pumpkins, squash, sweetcorn and tomatoes outdoors, and sow beetroot, carrots, cauliflowers, cucumber, French and runner beans, sweetcorn and spring onions outdoors. Sweetcorn can be sowed indoors in deep pots to raise strong young plants that can be transported into the garden in June. You can begin to sow short rows of lettuce fortnightly and move pencil thick leeks into their final position. It is very important to cover emerging shoots of potatoes with soil to prevent exposure of light. Exposure of light will increase the amount of chlorophyll and then turn them green. This would mean that the potatoes have a high level of glycoalkaloids toxins which is not good.
These are all the essential jobs which needed tackling this month and luckily there’s still time to catch up if you were a little behind with your gardening duties. Due to the weather being slightly dull it also means that there’s no rush to get everything sorted straight away. The key to a wonderful summer garden is lots of preparation, so take each job at a time and do your best to get it done properly.
If you’re uncertain about anything, or would like further details, then call our highly experienced sales team now on 01263 820202 for helpful, friendly advice.
