A gardener has shared the jobs you should tackle in the garden during May in order to set yourself up for a blooming summer – and one of them involves removing something
10:46 ET, 09 May 2025Updated 10:49 ET, 09 May 2025
There are things you can do now in your garden (Stock Image)(Image: Lourdes Balduque via Getty Images)
If the pleasant weather in May has you eager to do some gardening, an expert has suggested specific tasks to prioritize. Gardening enthusiast @therosetintedgardener offered advice for beginners this month, stating in her caption: “To me, May always feels like a transitional month as the tulips have died back and my summer flowering plants are still a month or two away from blooming.
“So it’s a good chance to take stock and get everything ready for a summer full of color and flowers”. She first advised that the tulips in your garden are likely past their prime. “Deadhead these as they start to fade and let the leaves die back before lifting the bulbs to make way for summer plants,” she suggested.
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Next, she emphasized the importance of acclimating your seedlings to outdoor conditions by gradually increasing their exposure until they can remain outside overnight.
“I prefer to wait a few more weeks before planting things out so they’re stronger and more resilient when they go in the ground,” she clarified.
Once seedlings develop “three sets of leaves,” you can “snip off the tip,” which “promotes side shoots and a bushier plant with more stems and hopefully more flowers too”.
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Regarding any roses in your garden, be vigilant for aphids. She mentioned that she typically allows ladybugs to “do their job, but when it appears the aphids are taking over, I spray them off using water in a spray bottle”.
For those with climbing plants adorning their gardens, it’s essential to fasten them securely to “structures such as walls, trellises, arches, etc”.
Doing so ensures that when the flowers “start to bloom,” the structures can support their weight.
“If you’re planning on doing any spring lawn care then it’s worth getting this done now until the weather becomes too warm and dry,” she advised.
Moreover, in the battle against weeds and slugs, she emphasized that “prevention is better than cure, so start acting now to help stay on top of weeds and slugs over the coming months”.
Regarding weeding, her strategy is “little and often” to remove young weeds before they “take root”.
She concluded her advice by saying: “As for slugs, there are a few measures you can take to try and curb this, although a lot of it will be in the hands of the weather gods”.
To fend off slugs, she recommends natural repellents like copper tape, crushed eggshells, or diatomaceous earth around your plants, and suggests hand-picking them in the evening when they’re most active.
A clean garden and controlled moisture levels also help deter these pests.