May Garden Calendar

​May is one of the busiest months for gardening.  That is especially so this year with our very late spring.  Compressed into a few shorts weeks is garden clean-up from the long winter, prepping the vegetable and annual beds, visiting the garden centers for fresh new plants, and planting.  Planting should be delayed until frost danger is at a minimum.  Let’s face it, in our northern zone frost danger can happen any time during the growing season.  Let’s get gardening! 

Here’s the list of reminders for this month:
 

• Fertilize shade trees & shrubs (when peonies bloom or buds swell) with high-nitrogen fertilizer (16-8-8)
• Fertilize evergreens with 16-8-8 at a rate of 1/3# per foot of height or spread, whichever is greater
• When perennial beds can be worked, spread fertilizer recommended by soil test and gently work into soil
• Feed garlic when green leaves begin to grow and then every 2-3 weeks until mid-June
• Prune non-flowering shrubs
• Fertilize asparagus – add lime
• Fertilize raspberries – apply ½ # urea (1 cup) per 100 feet or 2 cups high N fertilizer around each plant, repeat in June
• PUT DEER PELLETS ON HYDRANGEA
• Fertilize blueberries when growth starts, add bagged cow manure or ¼ c aluminum sulfate or 10-10-10 two time per year, repeat after flowering
• Prune pines by cutting 2/3’s length of candles if reduced growth is desired

 
A note on lawns:  Notice that fertilizing the lawn is not on this list.   Old recommendations were to start fertilizing near Memorial Day – the end of May.  A minimum maintenance program is to apply a winterizer fertilizer (26-0-12) in early to mid-October. If you prefer a lusher lawn, fertilizer can be applied two times; add an early June application to the mid-October application. For our area a maximum application of three times is recommended; for a high maintenance lawn apply fertilizer in early June, early September, and early to mid-October. These are the active grass growing periods in Wisconsin. Never apply fertilizer during dormant periods.