Welcome to Gardenscape Landscape Supplies in Papamoa, where we’re excited to share our May Gardening Tips to transform your outdoor space this autumn! As the weather cools, May is the perfect time to prepare your garden for winter while adding beauty and functionality. From clever drainage solutions to raised garden beds and seasonal plant care, our expert advice will help you create a thriving, low-maintenance landscape that shines through the colder months. Let’s dive into these practical ideas and make the most of your garden this May!
Transform Your Outdoor Space with Drainage Solutions
As winter rains approach, seize the moment to enhance your lawn with effective drainage systems or swap a soggy patch for a stunning pebbled retreat. Improving water flow is crucial, especially in urban areas where heavy downpours challenge stormwater systems.
For an even more elegant touch, consider installing diamond grid in muddy parking or walkway zones. Crafted from 100% recycled polypropylene, this durable grid supports vehicles like cars and RVs while showcasing a polished pebble finish.
Elevate Your Garden with Raised Beds
Struggling with dense clay soil or seeking a back-friendly gardening option? Raised garden beds are the answer! Construct them effortlessly with Macrocarpa Sleepers or Trustwood Sleepers, creating an ideal haven for vibrant flowers, tasty veggies, and lush shrubs. Fill with Gardenscape’s Garden Mix for thriving results!
May Gardening Tips
Admire the autumn hues but unsure which trees are gracing your yard? Snap some photos and use a plant ID app, search online, or visit a local nursery for expert advice on placement.
This month, pair striking NZ grasses and coprosmas with exotic trees boasting rich fall tones. Popular NZ and Aussie grasses deserve a gentle combing to clear dead growth, paving the way for spring renewal.
Mulching is a game-changer: a cozy layer around treasured plants enhances winter aesthetics, shields roots from chill, curbs weeds, and manages heavy rain effectively.
Plan ahead for winter fragrances with daphne, wintersweet, boronia, and deciduous viburnums to delight your senses.
May Ornamental Garden Highlights
Trees & Shrubs
Exotic trees like oaks, maples, and liquidambars dazzle with autumn splendor, especially in milder climates. Clear away faded foliage from summer perennials and enrich their bases with compost.
Flowers
Refresh your garden by tidying up spent blooms and leaves from dahlias, hardy geraniums, hostas, and more. Introduce cold-resistant polyanthus, poppies, primulas, and cyclamen for winter color.
Trim older leaves from winter-blooming hellebores to spotlight budding crowns, ensuring a spectacular mid-winter show. Let roses and hydrangeas keep their old flowers and foliage until July or August.
Stock up on spring bulbs for gardens and pots – keep potted bulbs in shaded spots until they sprout. Revamp pots with fresh mix, blending bulbs, petite grasses, or ground-covers with polyanthus, primula or cyclamen for a textured display.
The NZ arthropodium (renga renga lily) thrives in dry shade – remove unhealthy leaves and scatter snail bait to protect it. In frost-prone zones, drape with frost cloth on calm nights. Implementing these May Gardening Tips will ensure your ornamental plants thrive through the season.
Hedges & Grasses
Camellia hedges flourish in Auckland’s climate, with early sasanqua varieties shining as hedges. Trim evergreen hedges one last time before winter, adding compost for structure and charm.
Clear spent leaves and flower stalks from flaxes, and rake out dead grass from native varieties to rejuvenate them.
May Fruit and Veggie Garden Focus
Vegetables
Opt for seedlings over seeds for reliable germination this month. Plant vibrant chard, cabbages, sprouting broccoli and cauliflower, watching for slug and snail activity.
Start Chinese Snow Peas now, providing a trellis or frame for their 1.8-meter growth. Prepare a spacious bed (at least 5 square metres) with compost and sheep pellets for asparagus corms, arriving next month. Sow broad beans before winter sets in.
Fruit
Gear up for strawberries by enriching beds or pots with Gardenscape Garden Mix, compost, and blood and bone—add gypsum if clay dominates. After harvesting feijoas, passionfruit, and tamarillo, fork compost around roots to boost soil health.
Share surplus feijoas with neighbors when they fall! Consider persimmon trees for hardy fruit and stunning orange foliage. Plant raspberries, currants, and rhubarb crowns – ‘Victoria’ rhubarb is a reliable choice.
Apply a copper spray to fruit trees hit by summer diseases, and clear fallen diseased leaves to prevent spore carryover.
Herbs & Flowers
Brighten your veggie patch with calendula (winter marigolds), whose edible flowers add color. Stock your kitchen with hardy herbs like bay, rosemary, thyme, and sage for winter dishes. Place potted thyme, rosemary, parsley and bay near the door for easy access.
Enriching Your Soil
Prepare beds for winter crops like garlic, asparagus, and strawberries with compost and Blood & Bone – gypsum helps if soil is clay-heavy.
Garden Protection
Combat slugs and snails with yeast traps (beer dishes) or scatter eggshells/coffee grounds around young veggies. Shield new cabbage and broccoli from green looper caterpillars by checking leaf undersides and using spray or dust if needed.
Inspect lemon trees for scale (hard brown lumps on leaves) and treat with mineral oil. Insulate worm farms with an old rug or carpet for winter.
Cut lupin crops to 15cm and leave on soil to enrich it with nitrogen. Remove diseased fruit and leaves from under trees to halt spore spread.
May Lawn Maintenance
Sweep away fallen leaves to prevent disease and ensure grass breathes. Spread gypsum over lawns to improve drainage before winter rains. These May Gardening Tips will ensure your lawn stays healthy and resilient through the season.
Visit Gardenscape Landscape Supplies in Papamoa for all your May gardening needs – let’s make your outdoor space thrive!