Grafted tomato plants are now ready for planting – grafted tomatoes are more vigorous and carry more fruit than traditional varieties and are so easy to grow in a greenhosue or polytunnel. Plant grafted tomatoes this week.- Plant blueberries and rhubarb plants this month; soil conditions are ideal at present. Add some organic compost to the soil before planting and feed monthly with VitaxQ4 for strong growth.
- May is the month when strawberries start to flower and set fruit, its also an ideal time to plant young strawberry plants into strawberry pots or window boxes for tasty fruit in mid summer. Remember, strawberries are fun to grow and will fruit this summer if planted now.
- Potato blight can be a problem on young early potato and tomato plants especially in wet humid weather. Protect your plants with a dressing of Proxanil treatment applied every to the young foliage every two weeks.
- Sow all year round lettuce seed now out of doors in shallow drills. Lettuce seed sown now will reward you with lots of salad lettuce in July and August. Greyhound cabbage, white Liston lettuce and early Nantes carrots can also be sown from seed this month. Remember, there is a wide choice of vegetable and herb plants available for planting.
- May is the ideal time to sow a new lawn or wild meadow area. Weather conditions and soil temperatures are just right for excellent germination and strong growth. Clear the ground of weed growth with a dressing of Scutch Out weed killer – Scutch Out will kill existing weeds without contaminating your soil. Add some preseeding Scott’s fertiliser to the soil and finally apply Green Velvet lawn seed for a quality hard wearing lawn this summer.
Plant a selection of roses in well prepared garden soil for strong colour this summer. The top red flowering rose has to be Trumpeter. It produces masses of vivid red blooms in large bunches from June to early winter. Trumpeter has excellent disease resistance, produces lovely bronze foliage and flowers its head off all summer long. Plant Trumpeter in groups of fives or sevens to create a strong show of colour in your garden this summer.- Summer flowering climbers including clematis, honeysuckles, climbing roses, wisteria, flowering hydrangea and sweet peas can all be planted this month. All climbers enjoy well prepared garden soil – I recommend you add Supergrow compost to the planting hole with two handfuls of organic chicken manure before planting. Summer flowering climbers planted now will put on strong growth and many varieties will flower this summer.
- Trees, shrubs and heding plants are putting on strong growth during May; an application of Tree and Shrub fertiliser applied now will help to promote strong growth and flowers in many garden plants. Simply sprinkle a handful of the granulated fertiliser out from the base of the plants. The tree and shrub granules will be absorbed quickly and add a much needed boost to your garden plants.
- Check your fruiting gooseberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants for greenfly attack; greenfly can cause severe damage to many fruiting plants in May and now is the ideal time to apply a dressing of Bug Clear Gun. Bug Clear Gun kills unwanted garden pests without damaging the fruit or plants and is ideal for all fruiting plants.
Slug and snail damage is very visible at the moment, the wet start to May has encouraged a lot of damage on soft garden plants. I use Slug Clear liquid to protect my garden plants, its easy to apply, invisible to pets and garden birds once applied and very effective at controlling both slug and snail infestation.- Apple trees have flowered well this spring which will hopefully mean a strong crop of apples later in the summer. After all the flowers have set with fruit, feed the trees with a handful of organic Seamungus manure pellets and spray the trees with a dressing of Bug Clear to help protect the young apples from green fly or caterpillar attack.
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Join Paraic Horkan every Saturday morning from 9am to 10am on Midwest radio for his gardening programme. Text your gardening question to 087-9004141 to email your question with a photo to garden@midwestradio.ie.
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