Gardening Hints & Tips – May & June 2025

May 8, 2025| Current Issue, FOR EXPORT, Gardening Hints & Tips

May & June 2025

Worplesdon Garden Club is a friendly and enthusiastic club which meets every second Tuesday of the month from 8-10pm in the Old Church, Emmanuel Parish Centre, Stoughton, Guildford, GU2 9SJ with doors open from 7.45pm.

For more information on Worplesdon Garden Club contact Tim Bonnert on 01483 237702

About Worplesdon Garden Club

Membership is only £15 for the year from January and includes a full schedule of speakers throughout the year, plus a range of social events including Garden Visits, Lunches, Barbecues, and Horticultural Shows. Please see the club website, www.worplesdongardenclub.co.uk, for more details. Visitors (£3) and new members are always welcome.

For more information on Worplesdon Garden Club contact Tim Bonnert on 01483 237702, info@worplesdongardenclub.co.uk, or visit www.worplesdongardenclub.co.uk where you can read our latest Club Newsletter – www.worplesdongardenclub.co.uk/newsletters

Club News:

Tuesday 13th May
Club Meeting in May:
Richard Ramsey – ‘Dahlias’.

Tuesday 10th June
Club Meeting in June:
Ray Broughton – ‘Alternatives to Peat’.

Gardening hints and tips for May and June

Half-Hardy or tender annuals and perennials, and any tender vegetables can be planted out gradually through May, depending on how sheltered the planting
area is. Tropical plants such as bananas can be planted outside from June.
Shop-bought or greenhouse-raised plants should be gradually acclimatised to outdoor conditions before transplanting. This process, called ‘hardening off’, involves gradually exposing plants to the cooler temperatures, lower humidity, and increased air movement of outdoors over a period of about
2-3 weeks.
Protect tender new growth and young plants from frost damage by covering plants with newspaper or horticultural fleece at night if there is a cold spell or very clear nights.
Keep greenhouses well-ventilated and water regularly as warm days as rapidly growing plants will dry out the compost very quickly.
In the vegetable garden, begin to start succession sowing of salad crops for a continuous supply throughout the summer.
Continue to mow lawns regularly but remember that taller grass will stay green for longer if the exceptionally dry Spring extends into Summer. Moss and broadleaf weeds should be treated in early May, but most treatments require rain shortly after treatment so time appropriately.
Leave the foliage of Spring bulbs to die down naturally – don’t be tempted to cut or tie-up leaves. It’s a good idea to give them a water with a high potassium fertiliser such as a liquid tomato feed, as the treatment they receive now will determine the quality of the blooms next Spring.
Continue to sow annuals and vegetable seeds and prick out and pot on any seedlings as they grow into peat-free compost.
Only Slug pellets containing Ferric Phosphate are approved for use. Not all slugs do damage to your plants, so try to use Garlic wash or other natural methods of control (including encouraging wildlife) to limit damage by slugs and snails.
The long and warm days of late Spring and early Summer will bring on your plants but all the unwanted weeds too, so keep on top of these opportunistic weeds
by regular hoeing or hand weeding on dry days.
The new growth of herbaceous perennials may require staking, tying, or a plant support to keep them from sprawling or being damaged in the wind. It is better to put the supports in place before they are needed by the tall plants so that the foliage grows into or through the support naturally.
Prune early flowering shrubs such as Deutzia, Philadelphus and Weigela (RHS Pruning Group 2) after flowering to allow time for the new growth that follows to harden and bear flowers next year.
Tie in new growth on climbing and rambling roses to near horizontal as possible to promote the formation of flowering side-shoots.
For all your flowering plants, remember to deadhead as often as you can to prolong flowering.
In the vegetable garden, sow or plant out sweetcorn in blocks rather than rows to help with wind pollination of the cobs.
Pinch side-shoots of cordon (indeterminate) tomatoes and continue to tie in the stems to a cane or twist around a suspended string.
Tomatoes and cucumbers should be watered regularly but evenly to prevent drying out and be fed with a high potassium fertiliser weekly.
There is always a lot to do outside at this beautiful time of year but make sure you take the time to just enjoy your garden.