May is the month of happiness, hope and fertility. Let us explain… May (in Latin, Maius) was named for the Greek Goddess Maia, who was identified with the Roman era goddess of fertility. Here are a few jobs you can do to keep your gardens happy and growing.
Sow
May is a month of sowing and we will be sowing lots of vegetables for the kitchen garden. The beds are prepped and we are trying out lots of different things this year – the kids love chard, carrots, beetroot, peas and beans so they will all be included, as well as salad crops and potatoes.
Careful about the late frosts and cover young seedlings from those hungry rabbits. We will also be sowing a wild meadow in an unused and unloved corner of the garden. We’ve racked the sil over, removed weeds and covered it with cardboard to keep it warm. Then it is just a matter of scattering a packet of mix and watching them grow. The seed mixes are usually mixtures of less vigorous grasses and lovely wildflowers such as poppies, vetch, daisies and yellow rattle.
Support
It’s a good idea to get ahead of the game by putting in supports.
Once plants have got going it’s really difficult to try to prop them up and they may already be damaged.
We love hazel branches as they look beautiful and are more sustainable than anything plastic. Support will be going up around the sweet peas, climbing roses, runner beans and peas, and as the shoots grow we will tie the plants in to the hazel branches as necessary.
Sit
We’ve never done Dry January. I once did Movember and Mrs Clarke once did Vegan October! But we have both fully committed to No Mow May. We are going to let the lawn go wild and see enjoy seeing what wildlife joins in our garden parties. We might cut a little path through the lawn to the children’s tree house, but that’s all.
We had so much fun last spring watching all the birds come and go, the bees buzzing around and we even welcomed a hedgehog into the garden last spring. So we are going to sit back and allow the lawn to bloom and provide a feast of nectar for our hungry pollinators.
We love pretty gardens, but fear not! You don’t need a mahoosive field to have veggie patches – things can still grow on window sills, on the patio and in sunny glimpses of the lawn.
