Garden Tasks — May
It’s been an unusually cool May in Nashville this year and I’m having mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I’m anxious for my tomatoes and peppers to have the warm weather they crave, but I’m also glad my lettuce, snapdragons, and other cool weather crops are getting a few extra weeks of the temps they enjoy.
One thing I want to stress as we move into the warm season is that it is absolutely NOT TOO LATE to install and plant a garden in Nashville. There are lots of delicious veggies we can grow over the summer and another cool season for growing in the fall. Don’t feel like you’ve missed out on gardening for the entire year just because Home Depot might be sold out of tomatoes. Drop me a line and we’ll get you on track.
PLANNING AND PROJECTS
If you haven’t mulched your garden beds yet, do it now. It will be a huge help in keeping soil moist when the temps start to rise and rainstorms become fewer and farther between. One exception: don’t much around Mediterranean herbs like oregano, thyme, rosemary, and lavender who like their soil a bit drier.
Make sure you have all trellises, stakes, and cages in place so your plants will be supported as they grow.
Venture out to a different garden center than the one you typically visit. They will probably stock and display a selection of plants you haven’t seen before that will inspire new ideas on what to plant in your garden.
FOOD
Look out for damage from insect pests which can become an issue as temperatures warm up. Make sure to identify what insect is doing the damage before treating, and always try to remove them by hand or with a spray of water before using an organic treatment.
If you haven’t yet, you can sow seeds of warm season vegetables like okra, corn, green beans, cucumber, zucchini, and winter squash.
Transplant seedlings of tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers when the forecast looks like it will be warm for the next 10 days.
If you want to try to get another crop of lettuce, plant seeds in a shadier spot of the garden. Try it on the north or east side of your peppers, or under a shade cloth.
Scratch in some organic fertilizer or compost around the drip line of plants that have been growing for 6 weeks now like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and other greens.
Harvest: If you planted on time, you’ll be able to harvest lettuce, collards, chard, mustard greens, kale, chives, cilantro, dill, parsley, turnips, peas, strawberries, and broccoli this month. Yum!
Make sure to take notes on what and how much you are harvesting each day. This will help immensely when planning next year’s garden. I’m currently swimming in lettuce, so when I design my garden beds next year, I’ll check my notes and probably choose to plant about half as much.
Pull weeds early and often. They are much easier to remove after a rainstorm with the soil is moist.
FLOWERS
Once your snapdragons, zinnias, and cosmos start blooming be sure to cut them often. These flowers will keep producing blooms for months if you continue to remove flowers. This can be done by cutting them when buds have just opened to bring inside and enjoy, or by removing the spent blooms and composting them once they have faded in the garden. Don’t let the blossoms dry up on the stem and create seed heads. If allowed to produce seed, annual plants will think their yearly life cycle is complete and start to die.
If you haven’t planted any flowers for cutting, what are you waiting for? With just a few square feet, you can grow enough plants to cut a fresh bouquet each week for your dinning table or work-from-home desk.
FEELINGS
The unpredictable weather we’ve been having can be stressful for gardeners who have just put heat-loving peppers in the ground, only to see a week of nighttime temps in the 40s. Or to wake up to a stand of tall flowers bent over and broken after a heavy rain. But this is a good opportunity to remind ourselves to distinguish between the things we can’t control (like thunderstorms), and the things we can control (supporting tall plants with strong trellises and stakes so they don’t blow over in thunderstorms). If you find yourself getting frustrated that growing conditions aren’t perfect, first ask yourself (or me) if there is something you can do to improve them, and then hope for the best and practice acceptance of the fact that loss is part of gardening.
I hope you have a fantastic (or good enough) May in your garden this year.
