Tasks for May

The plant of the month for May the pelargonium, one of Britain's best loved bedding plants. Commonly known as geraniums, they come in upright, trailing and dwarf varieties so as long as you can supply a sunny spot and a free-draining soil or compost, there's sure to be one for every spot in the garden. Among the most reliable varieties [...]

What to do in the garden in May: With the sun shining and the garden full of colour and life you'll want to be outside from dawn till dusk at this time of year. Here are a few things you can be getting on with: General tasks: Harden off tender plants before moving them outdoors, taking 7-14 days to get [...]

Move citrus outside for summer now the threat of a late frost is receding: they'll be delighted by a summer holiday outside on a sunny patio and will relish the higher light levels and extra rainfall outside. Citrus trees are straightforward to care for and rewarding to grow, with sweetly-scented blossom in late autumn into winter which then takes a [...]

Tackle aphids in the greenhouse before they get to plague proportions and do some serious damage to your plants. Once upon a time, a gardener could reasonably rely on the weather to kill off any aphids lurking in the greenhouse during winter. Not any more though. Rising temperatures mean they're emerging in spring unscathed, and with reinforcements – so you'll [...]

Harness nature with biological controls, the environmentally-friendly way to tackle pests which uses the natural enemies of your pests to keep their populations under control. Biological controls are usually tiny nematodes, parasitic wasps or mites, harmless to people and plants but fatal to many of our most-hated garden pests such as slugs, snails and vine weevils. Just choose the one [...]

Watch out for drought as it can be a real killer at this time of year. After coming out the other side of a long, wet winter, it's easy to sit back on your laurels when dry weather comes but in fact, especially now with lots of young seedlings with shallow root systems in the ground, you can't drop your [...]