Gardening tips for May 2026

Longer, warmer days, two bank holiday weekends, it must be May, ideal for getting gardeners into the garden – gardening. Which will come first, the sound of the first Cuckoo or the first hosepipe ban of the year? Whatever the weather (whoever said that?) there is no time to wait, your garden needs you.

I was speaking to a venerable doyen of the neighbourhood in the pub the other day. He informed me that his garden was a tip and needed some attention.  There is no easy way of saying this but, that tip of a garden isn’t going to clear itself. This does raise a very important question: not everyone has the means or ability to keep on top of all the gardening jobs, therefore it could be a case of getting the family and friends to help or employ a professional.

On the upside, the garden tip is a blank canvas with great potential only requiring time and effort and there is no better time to get started. However, what can be done if there is no garden, perhaps a balcony or just a windowsill?

Windowsill and Container Gardening

Sunny windowsills are useful places for growing herbs in small containers, which are best stood on a windowsill tray or individual saucers.  Suitable herbs include:

Cress: scatter seeds into wet kitchen paper and keep damp. For a more intense taste, plant in a pot of compost and cut the small plants when about 10cm tall.

Pea shoots: scatter a handful of dried peas (pre-soaked in water overnight) onto a layer of compost, cover and keep watered. Harvest when shoots are about six days old (any older and they get bitter), the cut shoots will regrow.

Basil, parsley, mint: scatter seeds onto compost and cover with just enough compost, keep watered, pick off half the leaves from each plant when about six leaves tall.

Sage and Thyme: drought tolerant, so less watering required, plant in a mix of compost and sand for added drainage. Cut as needed.

For larger containers with a bit more space such as a balcony:

Kale: (while I don’t like kale, try this, it may surprise you) sprinkle seeds onto 6cm deep compost and cover, keep moist and cut leaves when about 6cm long.

Beetroot: in a large pot filled with 15cm compost, plant seeds 3cm apart and cover with 3cm of compost. Pull out some seedling for edible leaves leaving some to grow on to produce beetroot.

Chives: scatter seeds onto a plant pot almost full of compost and cover with 1cm compost, keep moist, cut as needed, they keep re-growing.

The kitchen garden

Knowing what to do next is the gardener’s conundrum in May. Any winter/spring veg will be past its best and the space can be made ready for summer crops, remember crop rotation.  Sowing seeds under cover is the usual way to avoid late frosts but one can always take a chance or sow directly into carefully prepared soil, frost protection can always be provided to protect tender plants if necessary. If seeds have been planted inside, they need hardening off before planting out. Sow sprout, cauliflower and cabbage seeds for a crop this year. Chillies, peppers and cucumber seed to be sown indoors, they need heat to germinate. Courgette, pumpkin and other squashes sow indoors for a better chance of germination, plant out the seedlings next month.  And lastly weeding, don’t forget the perennial challenge, weeds love May but a hoed weed quickly dries and shrivels away under the May sunshine.

The flower garden

Plant of the month is the Marguerite daisy (Argyranthemum). There are hundreds of different varieties ranging in colour and size, they look good in the borders and hanging baskets. The plant catalogues usually comment that marguerites are “hugely generous with flowers”.

Beware the garden centres full of summer bedding. By all means purchase summer bedding but have you anywhere to keep it protected in case of late frosts? Hardening off is the gradual customisation of tender plants from the grower’s heated greenhouse, via the covered garden centre displays to somewhere sheltered in the garden before deciding to risk it and plant out.

The same advice applies to hanging baskets. If making your own, always use a good quality compost, add slow-release fertilizer and, more importantly than ever, incorporate water retention gel or crystals. Peat-free compost is free draining, hanging baskets don’t like drying out so try to prevent this happening. If this does happen, put the hanging basket in a bucket of water to allow the compost to absorb water to recover.

And finally, don’t forget it's World Naked Gardening Day on 2^nd May, please don’t send pictures to the editor.

Keep gardening, Richard Haigh