May Garden Checklist: Tasks & DIY Projects

For some cold-climate gardeners, May marks the month of the last frosts for the winter and the warming of the garden soil. It’s the time to start growing and getting creative.

If you’re just catching up, the April checklist is here.

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May Garden Tasks

Here in southwestern Ontario, Canada, May begins spring gardening season in earnest. With the last frost of winter in the rearview mirror, it’s time to re-introduce our over-wintered plants to life outdoors, cool crop vegetable sowing, and planning for the growing season ahead. Woot!

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Grow

Planting, Sowing, & Preparations

Outdoors 

Many May garden decisions depend on where you are in relation to your typical last frost day along with the current weather outlook. There is a link in the Resources section (below) to look up your average last frost date.

• What Can I Safely Plant in Spring? offers tips for what you can plant before your last frost and what should wait.
• It may be time (or close to it) to start hardening off seedlings (to get them ready for outdoor planting).
• If you planted quick-growing vegetable crops in April, some may be ready for harvesting. You could also start more now.
• Craving blooms? These fast-growing flowering annuals have spring options too.
• This complete vegetable sowing plan runs from spring to summer.
• Soil temperature is your best guide for deciding “direct” (outdoor) seed sowing times. Each plant type has its own preferences.
• All that old perennial growth from last year? Leave it if you can. It’s home to countless pollinators and other animals.
• Remember to turn your compost pile (2x per week is ideal), to keep the microbes working.
• Grow new plants from cuttings: see what you can propagate now.
• Set up rain barrels and attach outdoor hoses when freezes are done.
• If you’re ready, beat the rush and get soil, compost, or mulch delivered now. Use our handy calculator to estimate how much you need and what it will cost.

Pond

• As weather warms, clean away debris in pond, adjust plants for growing season, thin out as needed. Don’t disturb the frogs or their eggs! Those loud calls indicate mating season is underway.

Wild Things

• Keep bird feeders and water feeders clean and filled.
• Clean out nesting boxes between broods. But be sure you’re not disturbing an active nest. When in doubt, wait or use a wildlife camera to monitor them.
• Have your hummingbird feeders ready using the correct sugar water recipe.
• You can track the hummingbird migrations on this map to know when they’ll arrive in your area.

Indoors

• Grow salad greens and other veggies and herbs can grow indoors all year-round.
• Move houseplants back from windows as daylight hours and heat increases. If you have fungus gnats, these sticky traps catch them.

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Make

Creative Projects

Now is the time to decorate your outdoor nest.

Project ideas:

• Make a repurposed garden art chandelier
• DIY flower hose guards to protect your plants
• Make decorative garden balls
• Mark your plants with creative plant tags

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Ideas

Dream & Scheme

• Do you grow more food than you can manage? See if a local food bank, fruit-sharing service, or other charitable service would like your surplus.
• Photograph your garden weekly. Make notes of hits, misses, and ideas for the future.
• Jot down “firsts.” First bee, butterfly, arriving migrations, what blooms each week, dragonflies, fireflies. I note them in my computer calendar so I can compare dates year over year. This book on Phenology has wonderful examples.

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Resources

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛