Everything you need to grow...
Hot off the trowel
Gardens to Gander
May is probably one of the prettiest months of the year when the leaves on the trees are that wonderful brand-new green and blossom are in full flower.
West Dean Gardens open Mon-Fri 09.30am - 5.00pm.
Sat-Sun 09.00am - 5.00pm
The National Garden Scheme (NGS)
Look on their website and find a garden near you to visit.
Woolbeding Gardens.
The gardens open again on Thursdays and Fridays only as from 24th April. Pre-booking is required for everyone.
Insector Clueso!
The Asian Hornet has arrived in the UK, and hundreds of nests have been destroyed. However, it looks as though they have been the tip of the iceberg. They are avaricious insects that target most of our pollinators.
Our honey bees are at serious risk of their hives being invaded and the colonies being wiped out. These predators are smaller than the European Hornet, which is not a threat. The Asian Hornet can be identified by its yellow leg ends and a wide orange band towards the rear of its abdomen.
If you see one, please report it using the iPhone and Android ‘Asian Hornet Watch’ app. Alternatively, email: alertnonnative@ceh.ac.uk
please include a photo if you can do so safely.
Weeders Digest
Wall & Water Gardens - Gertrude Jekyll
When a fellow garden club member recently acquired their new property — with a delightfully walled serene lily pond garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll — it seemed like the perfect time to return to Jekyll’s own wisdom on water in the garden.
Wall & Water Gardens is a timeless classic, written by one of the greatest garden designers of the English tradition. In its pages, Jekyll shares practical yet poetic guidance on designing dry-walled terraces, rock-gardens, stream gardens, ponds and marshy water features — and crucially, on selecting the right plants for water, marsh and alpine settings.
We recommend this book to anyone who loves the elegant marriage of stone, water and planting — If you’re curious about what kinds of aquatic or moisture-loving plants to try or how to balance structure and wildness around water, Jekyll’s book is still a deeply relevant, inspiring guide.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wall-Water-Gardens-Gertrude-Jekyll/dp/0881430021
Top gardening jobs for May
Summer’s on it’s way. As bulbs fade and herbaceous borders grow in leaps and bounds, it is now clear that summer is approaching. Sowing and planting out bedding can begin, depending on when the last frost is in your area and you can
take softwood cuttings. It’s also time to let the lawn grow long and get a buzz from seeing all the insects that arrive to feed on the flowers.
Top gardening jobs this month
1. Watch out for late frosts. Protect tender plants
2. Earth up potatoes and promptly plant any still remaining.
3. Plant out summer bedding at the end of the month.
4. Water early and late to get the most out of your water.
5. Hoe off weeds in vegetable patches.
6. Open greenhouse vents and doors on warm days
7. Mow lawns but consider leaving some uncut for wildlife
8. Check carefully for nesting birds before clipping hedges
9. Lift and divide overcrowded clumps of daffodils and
other spring flowering bulbs
10. Watch out for vibernum beetle and lily beetle grubs.
Musings
‘The world’s favourite season is the spring
All things seem possible in May’
Edwin Way Teale
‘Be like a flower And turn your face to the sun’
Kahlil Gibran
‘Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants
as paint and soil and sky as canvas’
Elizabeth Murray
‘Allow yourself 8-12 hours of time in your garden
every morning to prepare yourself for the day’
Anon
‘In the garden we cultivate not just plants, but also
the joy of life’
Anon
‘When gardeners garden, it is not just plants that grow,
but also themselves’
Ken Druse
‘I have found, through years of practice, that people garden
in order to make something grow; to interact with nature; to
share, to find sanctuary, to heal, to honour the earth, to
leave a mark. Through gardening, we feel whole as we make
our personal work of art upon the land’
Julie Moir Messervy - The Inward Garden, 1995
‘Your mind is a garden
Your thoughts are the seeds.
You can grow flowers,
Or you can grow weeds.’
Anon
‘May flowers always line your path
And sunshine light your day.
May songbirds serenade you
Every step along the way’
Irish Blessing
‘The garden is a soft place to land when the
world is heavy’
Anon
And finally...........
'We are all different kinds of flowers.
Together we can make the world a
a beautiful place’
