May is one of our favourite months in the garden. The days are now getting much longer and distinctly warmer and the increased light and temperature are stimulating lots of growth. Seeds that were planted in the dark days of winter have now grown into healthy young plants that are ready for planting out, herbaceous perennials have sprung back into life and brought with them the promise of summer colour and the buds have burst on deciduous trees revealing new leaves and late spring blossom. This month we’ll focus on the last of these.

The vibrant fresh green of new leaves is at its best at this time of year and if you’re lucky enough to have a view across mixed woodland you can enjoy the subtle variations of colour before the heat of summer starts to wash out some of the more vivid colours. In the garden, trees provide structure, shade and habitat as well as ornamental properties, so it is always worth thinking about putting in a tree. You don’t need a huge space too, as there are many options of naturally smaller trees including Acers, Amelanchiers, crab apples, Sorbus (rowan), some Magnolias and dwarfing fruit trees. You can also keep a more vigorous tree pruned to fit the space you have.

Amelanchier in full blossom

This crab apple has been kept tightly pruned to give a centrepiece to our small front garden.

Crab Apple in Blossom

We inherited this dwarf Acer from a client who was moving, it was in a pot, but the roots had burst through the drainage holes and into the ground.  Extricating it was quite a job, but after a couple of years it has settled down after the trauma.

Leaves bursting on Acer

Smaller trees tend to be quite slow growing and therefore expensive if you buy a mature specimen. If you want to have something that reaches the size you want a bit more quickly then buying a vigorous shrub and pruning it to shape as either a single or multi-stemmed “small tree” is a good value option. Viburnums, Camellias and Hollies are all evergreens that are suitable for this treatment.  This is a Camellia that we’ve been training for a couple of years after moving it.

Multi-stem Camellia

After a few months of largely indoor activity, April should see gardeners getting properly active outside again. Even though spring should be here by now, remember that cold snaps are still possible, so be prepared if frosts are forecast.

You’ll probably notice the effect of the warmer and longer days on the growth of grass and weeds. April is a great month to work on lawns to get them ready for the outdoor season. Scarify to remove thatch and improve aeration, feed and apply weed and moss treatments (if required).  Whether you are looking to have a traditional lawn or a wilder environment, increasing the amount of light and air available and removing unwanted plants will help to achieve the look you want.  Remember a weed is simply a plant in the wrong place.  This may be dandelions in a lawn, but could equally be a dominant grass in a wildflower meadow.

We have a very small front lawn, with the whole of the back garden set to planting and providing habitats for wildlife, so we try to keep the small lawn neat.  At this time of year we scarify, gently, before each cut.

Raked Lawn

If soft ground has kept you off the borders, then by April you ought to be able to get back on to them. Give everything a thorough weeding. Small annual and ephemeral weeds spread at a surprisingly fast rate and the perennials like bindweed, ground elder and dandelions are all starting to show themselves at this time of year so it is the perfect time to get ahead of the weeds. After weeding, feed and mulch ornamental plants and get supports in for plants now so that they are already in place by the time that the plants need them.

A Peony growing into its support.

As the spring bulbs begin to fade, remove the flowers so that the bulb’s energy is not spent on seed production. Leave the foliage for 6 weeks to die back naturally, feeding the bulb for next year, before tidying it up.

Now is a good time to cut back some early flowering shrubs such as Forsythia and Chaenomeles. These will be getting past their peak, so now is the perfect time to prune them. Next year’s Forsythia flowers will come on this year’s growth, so you can take it back quite a long way if desired.

Finally, be wary of nesting birds if you are tempted to trim your hedges.  It is against the law to intentionally damage or destroy a nest and for many birds it is also illegal to do this, or to disturb the birds, accidentally if your actions are deemed reckless.

March usually sees us pulling the first rhubarb of the year – always a treat; and this got us to thinking about perennial edible crops. March can be a good time of year to get these in the ground. An investment in initial ground preparation and a modest amount of ongoing maintenance gives crops for many years. There are two types of perennial edibles, woody ones like fruit bushes and herbaceous ones like asparagus.

You don’t need much space for some perennial crops.  If you have room for a new shrub, then you have room for a fruit bush, equally a rhubarb plot of less than a metre squared can give large crops for a long time.

Currants and gooseberries are classic fruit bushes and are relatively easy to look after. They need light and airflow, so pruning is simply a matter of keeping the centre open and removing the oldest growth to maintain vigour. Ground preparation and planting is the same as for ornamental shrubs. Dig a wide, but not too deep planting hole in well weeded ground.  You’re aiming to have a square hole about three times the size of the existing root ball and that will allow you to plant the bush at the same depth as it has been already. We don’t enrich the planting area as we want the roots to be pushing out looking for nutrients.  Add a bit of mycorrhizal fungi on the roots and ensure regular watering for the first year.

Pruned blackcurrants in early spring

Rhubarb prefers a shady spot that is either naturally moist or can be kept watered as rhubarb is a marginal bog plant. Unlike for woody bushes, we add plenty of bulky organic matter to the planting area for rhubarb to aid moisture retention.  We suggest allowing a full year’s growth before starting to pull the stems. We don’t take too much in year two, but thereafter rhubarb will give large crops for years.

Newly planted rhubarb

Mature rhubarb

Asparagus is a bigger investment of time. It is generally three years before you get your first crops, but once you’ve started cropping then you’ll never want shop-bought asparagus again.

Emerging asparagus spears in late April

You can plant new crowns in either the autumn or the spring, but we have had most success with spring planting.  Dig a trench and at the bottom create a mound over which you spread the roots of the asparagus crowns. Light, free draining soil is preferred. Keep the bed well-watered in the first year and make sure that you keep on top of the weeds as the first ferns are quite small and are easily out-competed. Once properly established the crowns spread and you’ll soon have an abundance of delicious produce.

As we usually say at this time of year, please remember that it is still winter (despite the lengthening days). We’ve already had heavy frosts and prolonged wet spells this winter, so don’t worry about postponing things if the ground is waterlogged or frozen. For those cold, soggy days; spend some time cleaning and sharpening your tools. As well as extending their lives, using well maintained tools is much easier.

In better weather; you can plant bare root shrubs and trees, and it is a good time to prune some plants. Apples, pears and wisterias are dormant with no leaf cover, so it is much easier to see the shape you’re creating. At this time of year, you can easily distinguish the larger, flowering buds from the smaller vegetative ones, making it easier to produce a balance of new growth and flowers.

Open structure of pruned apple

Fruiting buds

Late flowering clematis can be taken down as far as you like, make sure that you make cuts just above a node. Similarly, with hardy fuchsias, make cuts just above nodes and leave as much stem as you need to create the shape that you want to achieve.

Herbaceous perennials and grasses that have been left over the winter to provide structure and seed heads are looking past their best now and can be cut back before new growth starts to emerge.

You can begin sowing summer cabbages, broad beans and beetroot under cover and finish sowing onions and leeks. We tend to start all of these in seed trays or cells so that they can develop good root systems before they have to take their chances in the allotment. Hellebores are in full flower and emerging spring bulbs all tell us that another gardening year is underway, if it has been a slow start, don’t worry you’ll have plenty of time to catch up.

Hellebore in full flower

With Christmas in the air, this month’s choice is certainly a seasonal favourite – Holly (Ilex). We’ll be seeing plenty of bright red berries on cards, in decorations and adorning tasteful (?) jumpers. However, as the many verses of the famous carol make clear there is much more to holly than the berries. Foliage, flowers and multi-coloured berries make holly a real all-rounder offering interest throughout the year for both gardeners and wildlife.

Hollies don’t just produce red berries. Although they are rarer, plants bearing yellow or orange berries are also available, but for different berry colour, we’d generally recommend Pyracantha or Sorbus (Rowan) rather than holly. One thing to remember is that only female holly plants produce berries. If you are buying a plant this should be clear on the label, but if you have a self-seeded plant you may need to wait a while to see if you will get fruit. Both male and female plants flower, so both are a source of nectar.

Holly Bush in Winter Sunshine

Holly Berries

Where the variety of options for holly becomes really interesting is in the leaves, where there are not only different tones of green, but also a wide range of variegations giving multi-coloured leaves. ‘Silver Queen’ and ‘Golden King’ are two popular cultivars, whose names give a clear indication of the colours within the variegation.  Rather more confusingly “Silver Queen” is male so won’t bear berries, while “Golden King” is female, so it will.  Below are pictures of “Silver Queen” and “Golden King” from Jackson’s Nurseries

While some hollies definitely do bear “a prickle, as sharp as any thorn” they are not all vicious, as you can see above.  You can choose from very prickly to virtually smooth depending on how you want to use the plant.  You might want a boundary hedge to be spiky, which will help to provide cover for birds, but for something closer to lawns or buildings you may well want something a bit less fierce.

What about holly’s partner in the carol – ivy? Well, it is not exactly our favourite, but it can be very useful. We are not keen on its invasive nature, if left to run wild it can soon take over and can overwhelm other plants. It is one of the few plants that can overwhelm an evergreen honeysuckle and it can be a serious problem if it becomes established in tree canopies depriving the tree’s leaves of light. It is sometimes thought to damage walls, but this rarely happens and is very unlikely on a wall in good condition.  In fact, there is emerging research that ivy clad walls can help to moderate temperatures inside buildings, by providing extra insulation.

Ivy is undeniably a great plant for supporting wildlife providing both nectar and berries late in the season. If you have the right space to grow it (and keep an eye on it) ivy will certainly help to support the biodiversity in your garden.

It is worth noting that while ivy is climbing it retains a juvenile form, but once it reaches free air, for example at the top of a fence or wall then it matures to produce flowers and fruit.

The hour has gone back, the days are short, so is all gloom and decay in the garden? Well of course it isn’t. There are many plants that are still offering vivid colours well into November. Some such as Dahlias and Chrysanthemums will flower until the frosts arrive.  The photos below were taken yesterday, so strictly speaking still October, but the sun was shining.

Autumnal Dahlias

Cosmos and Chrysanthemums

Chrysanthemums

Other plants like many of our deciduous trees offer superb leaf colour, while others such as Pyracantha, Sorbus and Cotoneaster bear vibrant berries.

Autumnal Trees

Pyracantha Hedge

Cotoneaster berries

Sorbus Pink Pagoda

However, our choice for colour lasting well into the autumn are two bulbs, Nerine and its hybrid relative the Amerine. They tend to start flowering in October but the blooms will generally last into early November when the starburst flowers are entirely appropriate for bonfire night. Like most bulbs they require relatively little maintenance, but may need extra water in the summer when the leaves emerge (these will die back before the blooms appear on bare stems).

Nerine

The vegetable garden also has a couple of our favourites reaching their peak now, parsnips and leeks. Both will be ready for harvesting and whether it is roast parsnips, leeks in cheese sauce or hearty soups, they provide perfect comfort food for the gloomier days of late autumn. Both have quite long growing seasons, so are a timely reward for patient gardeners after many of the brasher summer vegetables have finished. Just make sure that you leave a few for Christmas dinner!