Heading into the garden this month, I thought I would share with you my May ‘to do’ list.
Tidying up my garden bed areas, weed eating and clearing out any summer annuals (saving seeds where I can). By keeping things tidy it can help reduce the snail and slug pressure as there aren’t as many places for them to hide during the day, it also helps to reduce your workload coming into spring if you can get up to date with the mowing. I’m checking that my gutters, drains, and swales are cleared out ready for heavier rains.
Starting up a leaf bin so I have somewhere to put any autumn leaves that I collect. Once the leaf bin is full, I will leave it for twelve months and then enjoy the amazing soil conditioner that nature has helped to create.
Pruning Fruit Trees. As we get to May I start observing my fruit trees and think about what shape that I want to prune them later in the month. I also take note of any diseased, damaged, or branches that are rubbing against each other so I can take this into account for my pruning plan. I’m not an expert pruner so always read my favourite pruning resource first, which is the book Pruning Fruit Trees – A Beginner’s Guide by Kath Irvine.
Replenish tired soil by adding compost, worm teas, liquid seaweed fertilisers and anything else I feel is needed.
Cover crop any bare soil areas. I like using the Green Manure Autumn Blend from King Seeds.
Mulching any areas of bare soils that aren’t suitable for cover crop to reduce weed pressre, and help stabilise soil temperatures. Just remember not mulch too close to plant stems to reduce the risk of stem rot.
Finish harvesting potatoes, pumkins, kumara, yacon before the first frosts arrive, or more in our case, before things begin to rot.
Planting more Brassicas (cauli, cabbage, kale, brocolli) and keeping an eye out for white butterfly caterpillars. There has also been a few mentions of army worm getting around in Northland so I’ve been keeping a close eye out for those too.
Planting out strawberries and relocating my strawberry patch. While I’m still setting up more garden beds I think this season I will grow all our strawberries in pots.
Planting out alyssum, bok choy, broadbeans (remember to stake), calendula, celery, chard, coriander, cornflowers, lettuces, mizuna, onions, peas, poppies, radishes, rocket, rosemary, sage, shallot, silverbeet, spinach, sweetpeas, thyme, and any other herbs that I can find. I don’t always do things ‘by the book’ but find up here in Northland we get a way with a bit more with the milder temperatures and I will be planting into free-draining raised garden beds.
Spring bulbs are not on my plant shopping list this year with the house build but I’m going to tidy up my spring bulb garden from last year and hoping that there are some bulbs that will pop up again this year.
Chop n drop in my food forest one more time before the winter. I will be focusing more on the autumn grasses rather than the plants themselves and making sure all the soil is mulched deeply enough. As I move through the food forest I will be observing to see if there is anything that needs my intention.
Spraying Neem Oil on my willow trees. I’ve just discovered that we have the Giant Willow Aphid so I’m aiming to get rid of those with the Neem Oil. First I’m going to hit them with the hose to get rid of as many as I can and then spraying the trees with neem oil. I only noticed I had these aphids when my willow trees were swarming with wasps and they started to get a sooty mould.
Garlic, mine has been planted but if you haven’t already got your garlic ready for the garden, this is your reminder to grab some asap. Every year it seems harder to get, especially organic garlic, with the increased number of budding gardeners. I love this revival of self-sufficiency but it has caught me out the last few years. Ideally I would like to keep some of my summer harvest for next seasons planting but last season was so wet I ended up harvesting it ‘fresh’ and having to freeze it in oil rather than drying and storing it.
This note is potentially just for those of us who live in the warmer/more humid parts of NZ but I know that the old saying for garlic is to plant on the shortest day of the year and harvest on the longest day of the year, but I’ve actually found planting in early May and harvesting around December seems to help reduce the liklehood of rust issues before harvesting.
That’s my list for the month and while I love my time in the garden I am looking forward to a reduced garden work load in the coming winter months so I can focus more on creating new products, homeschool projects with the kids, and building a house!