• Prepare and position the summer hanging baskets, outdoor pot plants and window boxes, give them an organic feed, to start them off well.

• fill up the beds and borders with the summer bedding. Sunflowers, Cosmos, Nasturtiums, Geraniums, Begonia, Lobelia, Impatiens, Snap dragons, Rudbekia and Petunia Surfinia, will all do fine in the garden now, give them an organic feed, for a good start.

• Remove the finished flowers of flowering plants on a regular basis. Roses, Carnations, Petunia etc, all thrive and produce never ending blooms when the old flowers are removed regularly.

• Bring the vegetables, tomato plants and herb plants into the garden and enjoy your own grown meals and fine aromatic gardens.

• It's already starting to get very warm now, so be aware of water evaporation. Keep ponds, bird baths and other water features topped up for the animals, birds many insects which will all now be thankful for the water in the garden.

• Connect the new shoots of the Clematis, Wisteria, Honeysuckle, Grape vines, Raspberries and Brambles to their supports.

• Pot up into larger pots fast growing herbs and veg such as basilikum, geraniums and peppers, to keep them happy, healthy and growing on fine.

• Bring in the vegetables, tomato plants and herbs  and enjoy your own grown meals and fine aromatic gardens.

• Weed the borders and vegetable patch regularly, also free up areas of weeds, around young shrubs and trees to allow the plants more water in the upcoming hot summer.

• Use the plant stakes or bamboo to stabilise young trees, and high growing fruit and vegetable plants, protects them from powerful winds and helps them to yield more and better fruit. 

• Keep some areas of the garden wild and natural, retaining some of the gardens original wildness, creates a sanctuary for pollinating insects thus helping and benefitting the entire garden.

• Tie up the growing stems of Tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines and peppers to canes as they grow, this stability ensures better fruiting and protection from the wind.

• Tomato plants: regularly pinch out the side shoots growing out of the leaves, each tomato plant should have only 3 main stems bearing fruit for a quality tomato harvest. and try not to let them dry out as this stresses the fruit and affects its quality.

• Basilikum plants: pinch out the growing top shoots, creating more stablity and growth in the plant, and let them dry out from time to time a bit, produceing sweet smelling flowers faster.

• Watch out for greenfly, blackfly and other harmful aphids on new foliage, especially the roses and malvinas, wipe them off with a soap based solution, and use a jet of water from the hose pipe.

• Attach a water barrel/container to a drainpipe to catch necessary rain water & don't forget to bring the element of water add a birdbath, dig out and line a pond or build a water feature.

• Enjoy morning and evening garden meditations, feel the subtle energy of the garden and the deep peace within, feel love, joy, goodness and awareness of presence, and offer fine respect to this wonderful planet.

• for earth friendly anti slug protection, take a look at the article here: 

Peter Carvello,

May 2026