Gardening tips for May – pest control for a blooming garden

May really is the month when everything springs into life. The birds are in full song, plants are growing, your seeds will be germinating, aphids are swelling in numbers and so are snails! So what to do? There is probably nothing more satisfying than watching your seeds germinate and nothing more disheartening than finding them reduced to slug and snail trails by the morning, so keep a close eye on your garden and vegetable plot.

Snail patrol

Tackling slugs and snails early in the season will dramatically reduce their occurrence throughout the summer, so if you haven’t already, it’s time for a tidy up of any broken or discarded pots, pieces of wood, plant debris and stones that make a safe refuge for slugs and snails.

Aphid controlAphids are best treated with an organically approved soap-based product used at regular intervals. As gardeners, we do, however, have a couple of natural allies in ladybirds, (although the larvae eat more aphids than the brightly coloured adults) and, more surprisingly, wasps.

Although a troublesome pest towards the end of summer, wasps are carnivorous in their early life stages and foraging adults seek out aphids to feed their developing larvae.

From the middle of the month there should be little risk of frost and the difference between night time and day time temperatures will have significantly reduced, thus making it a suitable time to sow most of your summer vegetables, although I would still wait until mid-June for very temperature sensitive plants such as basil.

In the flower garden, consider letting plants such as field poppies, Californian poppies, foxgloves, wallflowers and pansies go to seed to ensure a good display for the coming year.

 

Share Gardening provides garden maintenance and planting services for individuals and businesses, as well as plant sales all year round. To find out more or to get a quote, contact the gardening team on telephone 020 7924 2949 or email gardening@sharecommunity.org.uk.