May Gardening Tips
Now is the perfect time to get your hanging baskets started for a stunning Summer display.
Hanging baskets, containers and flower pouches add a whole new dimension to gardening this May, helping to utilise all the available space.
With hanging baskets and flower pouches you can brighten up a sunny wall, or with the right choice of plants, even add colour to those tricky shady areas. Whatever size basket you are doing, the basic rules are the same, water regularly and feed fortnightly. For a traditional hanging basket, plant an upright focal plant in the centre, 4-6 trailing plants around the edge and fill in with bedding plants.
For Pots and Baskets we suggest:
- Geraniums or Fuchsias or Non-Stop Begonias for the centrepieces
- Bacopa, Surfinias, Calibrachoas, Trailing Geraniums, Begonias or Fuchsias and Lobelia for trailing plants
- Nemesia, Begonias, Petunias, Impatiens, Pansy, Viola, Maigolds, Verbena, Bidens, Petchoas, Antirhinums for fillers.
Use a complete mix of colours or try hot colours with reds, orange yellows and white or cool pastels with pink, blue, purples and whites.
Now that your pots and baskets are filled with an explosion of colour, it’s time to think about the rest of your summer garden. If you fancy a taste of the Mediterranean, we love our Italian specimens, hand-picked by us at the grower's nurseries in Italy.
Mediterranean-themed gardens are a popular choice in the UK, and perfect for city living as they are based around paving, stones and gravel, not grass. Plus, Mediterranean plants tolerate drought and are typically easy to grow and require little care. Clay pots are a staple for a med garden, and we have many of these too!
Olive Trees are a must, unmistakable with their silvery leaves that shimmer in sunlight. They grow exceptionally well in a large pot, providing a focal point for the garden. More mature specimens have wonderfully shaped tree trunks and this is often their main feature. This is why it is our 'Plant Of The Month'!
Jobs to do in May
Feed, weed and kill the moss on your lawn
Be prepared and keep an eye out for garden pests
Start regularly feeding your plants
Keep an eye on the weather forecast for late May frosts
Don't cut back your finished spring bulbs, let them die back on their own and add a little liquid fertilizer around the soil - you'll thank yourself next year!
Start watering early morning or late evening on hot days or prolonged dry weather
Check for nesting birds before clipping hedges
Keep an eye out for nesting hedgehogs and don't disturb the nest if you find one
Plant of the Month
Olive Tree
Anyone who knows about geography will know that the olive line is a metaphorical 'cut-off point' that determines whether olives will fruit with success. This line is somewhere near the south of France. Above this line, the olive fruits will not ripen except in odd years when the summer is a good one.
Here in the UK, we are far above the Olive line but this does not mean that the tree is useless to us. There is an exceptionally hardy variety called 'cipressina' that is tolerant of very cold and wet conditions. This tree suits the UK very well and is one of the only evergreen slow-growing trees that can be bought today. It is unlikely you will produce edible olives from it but the flowers have a wonderful scent.
