Tips for May 2026

If you have sown sweet peas in pots under cover, plant them out once roots are established. Position plants within 5cm of their supports and help them start to climb by tying them in with soft twine.

Trim Forsythia, Ribes, Kerria and early flowering Clematis after flowering to give them maximum time to regrow and flower well into next year. Remove one in three stems at the base and cut back flowered stems to strong buds lower down on the stem.

Avoid cutting hedges, to ensure nesting birds are not disturbed, wait until August to trim, when the nesting season is over.

Continue successional sowing such as beetroot, carrots, lettuce, peas broad beans and radish to extend the season.

Earth up potatoes when the new stems reach about 20cm, draw up the soil to cover the lower half of the stems.

Plant up hanging baskets and containers with bedding if you have a bright, frost free place to keep them until they are ready to go outdoors at the end of the month.

Once roots have filled the pots on young aubergines, chill, sweet pepper and cucumber raised under glass. Wait until next month to move them outdoors.

Lift and divide overcrowded daffodil clumps. Gently separate offsets from parent bulbs and replant immediately. Remove flower heads but leave foliage to die back naturally.

Hang pheromone traps in apple trees to reduce codling moth caterpillars entering and damaging fruit.

Harvest rhubarb from established crowns as stalks reach 23- 30 cm. Pull (do not cut) stalks taking no more than half at any one time. Do not harvest rhubarb from newly planted crowns for the first two years.