This is the MAY installment of HortWeek's month-by-month guide to essential maintenance and management tasks for parks, gardens and grounds maintenance staff.
Office
- Update pesticide records
- Update sowing records
- Undertake visitor analyses – who is visiting, from where and what was their experience
- Hire in seasonal workers as needed for mowing and weeding duties
General
- Protect tender plants from night frosts
- Control slugs and snails
- Water plants as needed
- Control weeds
- Apply mulches
- Check irrigation systems are functional
Trees, shrubs and hedges
- Top up mulches around newly planted trees and shrubs
- Lightly trim box and formal evergreen hedges
- Prune spring-flowering shrubs such as kerria after flowering
- Take softwood cuttings from shrubs
- Note where more shade is needed
Beds and borders
- Stake and tie
- Train sweet peas
- Clear spring-flowering bedding and prepare ground for summer subjects
- Sow biennials such as sweet Williams for next year’s spring bedding
- Sow perennials such as achilleas outdoors
- Harden off summer bedding ready for planting out
- Thin annuals from earlier in situ sowings
- Divide early primulas after flowering
- Cut back and divide pulmonarias and doronicum
Wall plants
- Tie in new growth
- Prune Clematis montana after flowering
- Prune pyracanthas
Bulbs
- Continue deadheading spring bulbs and apply organic fertiliser
Containers
- Remove spring bedding
- Plant up summer displays in the south but wait until June in the north
- Harden off planted hanging baskets
Greenhouses and conservatories
- Ventilate and damp down regularly
- Provide shading for the summer
- Check regularly for pests and diseases
- Plant up hanging baskets for the summer
- Harden off summer bedding
- Sow calceolaris and browallia for winter pot plants
Water features
- Inspect regularly for algae bloom and treat accordingly
- Top up as necessary
*Jobs should only be undertaken when ground and weather conditions are suitable and will vary according to location and may vary significantly from year to year. And remember that while the year nicely divides into 12 months, activities often overlap
