May Greenhouse Gardening in the UK...

The Greenhouse Gardener's Diary - May

Jobs to do in the greenhouse during May in the UK

May is the time to:

Harden off :

• Rooted Chrysanthemum cuttings
• Sweetcorn for planting out at the end of the month

Plant out :

• Chrysanthemum cuttings at the end of the month

Things to do:

- Pinch out and tie up early tomatoes

- Place February sown tomatoes into their final pots

- Give the greenhouse full ventilation during the day

- If the greenhouse starts to get too hot, whitewash the glass on the outside

- Keep the greenhouse dampened down during the day

- Remove all seedlings and rooted cuttings from the greenhouse to make way for melons and cucumbers

- Prick off primula seedlings sown during April, repot into 3 inch pots

- Take cuttings of Alpine plants and insert them around the edges of a plant pot, in a sandy compost. Cover each pot with a polythene bag. Keep the bag from touching the leaf cuttings by inserting a small stick label. Tie the bag with an elastic band to exclude any air until the roots have formed. Turn the bag inside out everyday

- Thin out the berries on any bunches of grapes that have developed, to allow the remaining grapes to grow into a good shape

- Move tuberous begonias into 6 inch pots

- Mulch peach trees with well rotted manure, and train in young shoots

- Move late flowering chrysanthemums at the end of the month into the pots in which they are to flower

- Top dress lillies in pots

- By the middle of the month, move tomato plants which are destined for outdoors into a cold frame to harden off