May is one of the most exciting months in the gardening calendar. With longer, warmer days and an explosion of growth in the garden, it’s the perfect time to get outside and make the most of the season. Whether you’re tending borders, sowing new seeds, or maintaining your lawn, there’s plenty to do.
Here’s our essential guide to May gardening jobs - and how Kent & Stowe tools can help you achieve your best garden yet.
Sow & Plant for Summer Colour
May is ideal for sowing a wide variety of seeds directly outdoors, as the soil has warmed up and conditions are perfect for strong germination. Use a dibber to sow a range of bright flower seeds such as sunflowers, cheerful cosmos, and hardy annuals like cornflowers and poppies, which will bring a burst of colour to your garden later in the summer.
You can also use your trusty trowel to plant out tender summer bedding plants once the risk of frost has passed.
Prepare & Plant Up Hanging Baskets
If you love a vibrant display, May is the perfect time to plant up hanging baskets and containers. Choose a mix of trailing plants like lobelia, bacopa, and trailing petunias, combined with upright flowers such as geraniums or fuchsias for a full, colourful effect.
Use a good quality, peat free compost and consider adding a slow-release feed to support healthy growth throughout the summer.
Using your trowel, plant your baskets and containers carefully to avoid damaging roots and maximise impact with plenty of plants packed closely together.
Prune Spring-Flowering Shrubs
Many spring-flowering shrubs, such as forsythia, ribes (flowering currant), and chaenomeles (flowering quince), have now finished blooming. Pruning them in May helps to maintain their shape, encourages healthy new growth, and promotes better flowering next year.
Using sharp secateurs like Eversharp, remove dead, damaged, or weak stems and cut back overgrown branches to a healthy bud. Always prune just above a strong, outward-facing bud to encourage a good shape.
Lawn Care
With regular rain and rising temperatures, your lawn will be growing rapidly this month. To encourage dense, healthy growth, it's important to mow frequently - ideally once a week. Keep your mower blades slightly higher to avoid stressing the grass, especially in dry spells.
Now is also a good time to feed your lawn with a spring/summer feed to promote strong roots and a lush, green appearance. If you notice bare patches, reseed them while the soil is warm and moist for quick establishment.
Tackle lawn weeds such as daisies and dandelions with a Long Handled Daisy Weeder. It’s especially great for removing tap-rooted weeds with reduced effort and complete precision. The small head allows you to weed among your plants without disturbing them.
To keep your lawn neat, use a lawn edging iron or edging shears to create sharp edges around your borders.
Keep on Top of Weeds
May's combination of warmth and moisture creates perfect conditions for weeds to thrive. Staying on top of weeding now will save you time and effort later in the season.
Use an Oscillating Hoe to remove weeds from your beds and borders. This tool has a unique design to allow it to glide smoothly under the soil surface, effectively cutting through stubborn weeds while minimising soil disturbance. The long handle means you can work comfortably without straining your back, making it easy to keep your beds and borders weed-free.
Target perennial weeds like bindweed, ground elder, and dandelions early to prevent them from spreading and taking valuable nutrients from your plants.
Support Growing Plants
Many plants will be putting on rapid growth in May and will need some help to stay upright. Sweet peas, clematis, runner beans, and other climbers should be tied loosely to supports as they grow. Use some twine and always tie loosely in a figure-eight shape to avoid constricting growth.
Tall herbaceous perennials like delphiniums and lupins also benefit from staking before they become top-heavy and prone to snapping in wind or rain.
Installing supports early means the plants can grow naturally around them, resulting in a tidier and more natural-looking display.
Watering
As temperatures rise, it's important to ensure your plants receive enough water, especially new plantings that are establishing roots. Water deeply and less frequently to encourage plants to develop deeper, more drought-tolerant root systems. Don't forget to add plant feed to your watering can every time you water for even more blooms.
Early morning or late evening is the best time to water, reducing water loss through evaporation and giving plants time to absorb moisture before the heat of the day.
Use a beautiful Kent & Stowe Watering Can fitted with a fine rose attachment for gentle, even watering that’s perfect for young seedlings and delicate plants.
