Warm-season heat combined with generally abundant moisture encourages lavish growth this month. Beauty abounds, with flowers lighting up roses, impatiens, petunias and much more. You can continue to plant just about anything grown in a container, including sale plants, but In dry weather expect to water roots deeply every 7 to 10 days until well established. Consider growing heat tolerant plants such as sunflower, lantana, hardy blanket flower, creeping junipers, and crape myrtles, which will happily endure the steamy months ahead.

Below are some helpful May tips for getting and keeping those gardens growing:

Indoor Gardening:

As summer days grow longer and warmer, water and fertilize houseplants more frequently.  Move them outdoors to a shady location, but don’t forget to monitor their watering needs.

Woody Plants:

Transplant evergreens and keep well-watered.

Prune early-blooming deciduous and evergreen hedges, spring-flowering trees and shrubs, and wisteria after bloom.  Do not prune summer or fall bloomers now or flowers will be lost.

Remove dead or diseased wood and water sprouts from dogwoods and crab apples.

Lawns:  

Water lawn as needed to provide a total of 1” of water per week or allow it to rest without water during brief summer droughts.

Maintain established lawns at about 0.5” higher than in spring to help protect from heat stress.  Longer blades encourage deeper rooting.  Leave short clippings to decompose and nourish lawns.  Compost long, heavy clippings. 

When mowing or trimming near trees, avoid nicking bark, which can girdle and kill the tree or provide openings for pests and diseases.

Flowers:

Start annuals in individual pots to cover late summer bare root spots in flower beds.  Continue planting gladioli for a succession of bloom.

Finish digging and dividing crowded late spring-blooming bulbs; continue to deadhead spent bulbs; remove matured foliage with gentle tug when it separates from the bulb.  Deadhead lilacs, rhododendrons, and perennials.  Pinch back chrysanthemums and asters to make them bushier and more compact.  

Kitchen Garden:

Succession sow warm-season vegetables and herbs such as bush beans and dill.  Plant extra tomatoes, zucchini, and other high producers, and donate the bounty to food banks and other hunger programs.

Fertilize vegetables with manure tea or slow-release fertilizer worked carefully into soil along rows or around each plant.  

Harvest spring plantings of broccoli, cabbage and peas.  Remove cool season plants such as spinach and lettuce, as they bolt or form seed stalks during hot summer weather. 

Protect ripening strawberries from birds by covering with netting.  Protect cabbages from cabbage worms by covering with floating row covers.  

Around The Yard: 

Control weeds before they go to seed.  They’re easier to pull when young and when soil is damp.

Train plants growing on trellises; stake and tie floppy plants.

Add to and turn compost pile.  

Water everything as needed; use soaker hoses to conserve water and keep drops off foliage.  Do not water in the heat of the day.