Garden jobs

The garden in May.

Five jobs a month, written on a north-facing hill above the Rhymney valley, where the last frost can come in late May. With what we have in stock to go with them.

Hands in worn leather gardening gloves planting bulbs into a terracotta pot on a potting bench

Bedding goes out at the end of the month, not before

  1. Wait until the last week of May for tender bedding; up here it is the safe date.
  2. Earth up potatoes as the shoots come through.
  3. Hoe weeds on a dry morning, and they will die where they fall.
  4. Do the Chelsea chop on sedums and asters, in the last week of the month.
  5. Water pots and new plants whenever there has been a dry week.

About the jobs

Why does your last frost date say the end of May?

Because we are at about 150 metres on a north-facing slope. The Vale of Glamorgan can plant out two or three weeks before us; the heads of the valleys are often a week after.

Is this list everything?

No, just five jobs we think matter most. If you only have an hour this month, do the first one.

Are the stock lists live?

They are what we normally have in that month. Ring first if you are coming a long way for one plant.

Open every day but three, on the hill above Bedwas.

Bring a photograph of the bed or a leaf in a sandwich bag. Free parking for sixty cars, soup in the lean-to and a van for anything that will not fit in yours.