Home > Monthly Gardening Advice > Monthly Gardening Advice - May
May
- Still plenty of time to plant annuals and perennials for spring and summer color.
- Fertilize centipede lawns. One application per year is all that is required.
- Fertilize and water tomatoes regularly.
- Plant tropical vines at your mailboxes for bright flowers all summer. Good choices include mandevilla, bougainvillea and allamanda.
- Freshen the mulch in your planting areas. During warm weather, mulches help to regulate the soil temperature, conserve moisture in the soil and control weeds.
- Begin succession planting of hot weather annuals such as zinnias, marigolds, celosia and portulaca in May and continue through the month of June.
- Pinch back annuals to encourage bushy, compact growth. Annuals appreciate a continual supply of nutrients. Begin to fertilize them on a regular basis.
- Great time to plant long-blooming perennials like daylilies, purple coneflowers, Shasta daisies and gaura.
- Plant dahlia tubers at the end of May. Also, set your stakes in the ground at this time.
- Continue to plant perennials throughout the month of May.
- When ground temperature is 70 degrees F, begin planting vegetables such as: okra, pumpkins, sweet potato, eggplant, pepper plants, watermelon, peas and butter beans.
- It's too late to sow cool season grasses such as fescue, but warm season grasses such as Bermuda, centipede, and zoysia can be sown now.
- Use weed killer on lawns only if temperature is above 70 degrees F.
- Fertilize roses in May to encourage a second bloom, and continue feeding them on schedule through the month of June. Prune ramblers in June.
- Fertilize azaleas as soon as they finish blooming.
- Fertilize flower beds with Dynamite or Osmocote.
- Fertilize March vegetables with a balanced fertilizer.
- Use Amdro on fire ant mounds, then treat mounds with an insecticide 48 hours later.
- Use Ironite on shrubs and trees to promote healthy color and maximize root growth.