May lives up to its old nickname, the merry month of May. Everything is growing, everything is flowering, and the garden is finally bursting with life. For us it's the month of the big move: whatever grew up on the windowsill over winter now heads outdoors. There's just one date you need to remember, and the rest almost takes care of itself.
May roughly covers CW 19 to 22.
First the Ice Saints, then the heat lovers
The Ice Saints (a mid-May cold snap) aren't superstition but a surprisingly reliable weather pattern. Around 11 to 15 May, with Cold Sophie (15 May) bringing up the rear, a last push of cold air often sweeps in and drops one final round of night frosts. Only after that has winter really let go.
Planting out tomatoes, cucumbers and the rest
Now the favourites go into the bed. Set tomatoes a little deeper than they sat in the pot, right up to the first pair of leaves if you like. The buried stem grows extra roots and the plant stands sturdier for it. Strip off the lowest leaves so no splash of soil carries fungal spores up onto the foliage, and give each one a stake or a string to lean on from the very start.
Cucumbers, courgettes, peppers and basil follow the same rule: sunny, warm, out of the wind. Once the tomatoes get going, one of summer's most important routines begins, pinching out the sideshoots. You snap out the shoots forming in the leaf axils so the plant puts its strength into fruit instead of endless new foliage.
Video: How to pinch out tomatoes properly (GardenaDACH)Beans, sweetcorn and direct sowing
From mid-May the soil is warm enough for the frost-tender crops you sow straight into the ground. Pole beans and bush beans germinate reliably now. Put the supports up for your pole beans before you sow, a wigwam of canes carries them best.
Don't sow sweetcorn in one long row but in a block of several short ones. That's the only way the wind pollinates the cobs fully. Cucumbers and squash can go straight into the warm bed now too.
May is generous. Whatever plants you trust it with, it hands back to you many times over come summer.
Straw the strawberries, earth up the potatoes
The strawberries are flowering and setting their first green fruit. Now a handful of straw under each plant really pays off: it keeps the ripening berries clean and dry and helps head off grey mould.
The ornamental garden adds more colour
After the Ice Saints, the frost-tender summer flowers and tubers can go into the bed too. Dahlias are the stars of late summer, but their tubers only go into the ground now.
Alongside them go nasturtiums, pot marigolds and sunflowers. They aren't just pretty, they pull in bees, bumblebees and hoverflies, whose larvae go on to devour aphids.
Keeping an eye on slugs and aphids
The warm, damp May weather brings out the slugs, and they've got their sights set squarely on your freshly planted lettuces and young seedlings. A whole bed can be grazed bare overnight.
Your May in brief
- Plant outTomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and basil go outdoors after the Ice Saints.
- Sow directPole and bush beans, sweetcorn in a block, cucumbers and squash.
- TendStraw the strawberries, earth up potatoes, pinch out and tie in tomatoes.
- Ice SaintsPlant out anything frost-tender only after 15 May.
- Support beneficialsSow pot marigolds and nasturtiums to draw in bees and hoverflies.
- Slow the slugsPick them off in the morning, fit slug collars, keep bed edges dry.
Häufige Fragen
When exactly are the Ice Saints over?
As a rule of thumb, 15 May, Cold Sophie, is the last critical day. After that, late frosts are unlikely in most regions. In harsh spots or up at altitude it's better to wait a few days longer.
Do bush beans need support too?
No, bush beans stay low and manage without any support. Only pole beans need a frame, and it's best to put that up before you sow so you don't disturb the seedlings.
Why sow sweetcorn in a block and not a row?
Sweetcorn is pollinated by the wind. In a single long row the pollen blows off into nowhere and the cobs come out patchy. In a square block of several short rows the pollen reliably finds the female flowers.
Your May at a glance
May is a celebration, and it's allowed to feel like one. Wait out the Ice Saints, then plant out boldly, sow the beans and the corn, and keep an eye on the slugs through those first few weeks. Once that's behind you, the garden rolls on into summer almost by itself.
In Gartenkern you note down when you planted what, and set yourself reminders for pinching out and earthing up. Come next May you'll know exactly which Tomato ‘Berner Rose’ cropped best for you, and which corner the slugs were hungriest in. That's how every gardening year gets a little more relaxed.
