Gardeners Checklist: Here Is What to Do on This Third Week of May

By Ron Kujawski

• If not opting to go with a NO MOW MAY, follow this lawn care protocol. Mow high, leave grass clippings on the lawn, provide some fertilizer, and relieve soil compaction by core aerating.
• Start composting yard and kitchen wastes (vegetation only). Compost will be your most important and cheapest soil amending material. Incorporate compost into all garden soils whether the soil is sandy or clay. Apply compost as a top-dressing on lawns to reduce the amount of fertilizer needed and to help breakdown accumulated thatch. All of the potting soil I use for houseplants is mostly compost. Compost is waste turned to gold. Who needs Midas when you have a compost pile?
• Continue harvesting rhubarb until the new leafstalks start getting thinner. Then stop. A rhubarb plant that is at least three years old should continue to produce thick stalks through the end of May or longer. Remember, always pull rather cut the leafstalks when harvesting. Cutting a leafstalk leaves behind a piece of stalk with an exposed surface through which decay fungi may get into the plant.
• Start new plantings of red and black raspberries from newly purchased plants that are labeled as “certified, disease-free, virusindexed stock.” Never accept a gift plant from a friend’s planting. Raspberries are one of the most virus prone fruit crops in the United States. Bringing in plants from an old planting almost certainly means bringing in viruses.
• Know the height of flowering plants when setting them out in flower beds and borders. Low growing plants will be lost and unappreciated when stuck behind a taller growing species. It can get lonely back there.
• Wear safety glasses when using a string trimmer, pruner, chain saw, or lawn mower. There’s lots of debris that gets tossed around when using power equipment outdoors. Also, be aware of others, especially children, who may be within range of stone or other debris that may be flung from a lawn mower.
• Widen the crotches of your apple trees. Huh? Well, that certainly needs some explanation. It has long been known by apple growers that wide angles between branches and the trunk promote higher yields and larger fruit. Branches can be widened by weighing them down with weights or by spreading the limbs. Spreading is done by placing a strip of lath, with V-shaped notches at each end, between a young side branch and the tree trunk. Do this type of training while the trees are still young.

Ron Kujawski began gardening at an early age on his family's onion farm in upstate New York. Although now retired, he spent most of his career teaching at the UMass Extension Service. He serves on Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Horticulture Advisory Committee. His book, Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook, is available here.