An early morning stroll through the gardens with a cup of tea, and then pen to paper to create the To Do list. After all this rain, weeding will be on the top of the list, but if you’re hoeing the kitchen garden, hold off until the soil dries out a bit, otherwise the weeds will simply re-root after being dislodged.

Late May ‘To Do’ List:

• Feed the roses and deadhead them, if necessary.
• Feed the perennials. (This isn’t absolutely necessary if have good rich soil, but we try to broadcast a balanced, organic fertlizer, throughout the borders, at least once a year, in addition to the horse and chicken manure that we mulch the gardens with in spring and fall).
• Add aluminum sulfate to the soil around the microphylla hydrangeas (if you want clear blue flowers). This will be the second of three applications, early spring, late spring, early summer.
• Plant flowers for cutting; zinnias, sunflowers,marigolds, cosmos.
• Weed. This includes editing (pulling) self sown thugs that will shade out other valuable plants.
• Thin the lettuce plants
• Train the pea vines