Homeschool Garden Club - Things To Do In May
Garden Club May
May is one of the best times of the year in the Garden Club. Containers, beds, borders, veg plots and lawns will be coming alive with new growth so there's lots to keep us busy while you're outside enjoying the last month of spring; you'll then be able to reap the rewards while you're playing or learning outside over the summer months.
Pocket Money Gardening
If you are short of pocket money now is the time to offer your services to your Grandparents, extended family or even the neighbours depending up you age.
The lawn should now be in its prime, and it will probably be mowing at least once a week to keep it looking it’s best and edging will be needed to keep them tidy.Â
The water butts will be full and the plants will need watering regularly during prolonged dry spells. It can be heavy work and time consuming. Somebody has to do it and it might as well be you!
Treating wooden garden furniture, decking might need a clean down.
Fences might need a coat of something.
Trim hedges and bushes is another pocket money raising idea for you, but do check for bird’s nests before you start. Lots of gardeners don’t mind the ‘cutting bit’ but the ‘clearing up bit’ is the task they don’t like so much so appear helpfully with your broom in hand when asking. If the hedge is tall somebody at the bottom of the ladder is excellent health and safety and does not require too much work.
Finally, another boring job but that could yield some more pocket money is the war on weeds, hoeing the borders to keep young weeds from getting established and is a task you could offer to do.
Garden Club Science
In the evening, go on a slug and snail hunt. This could earn you some pocket money but you will also have a collection of animals to do a great project on, see me for the Snail Science pack.
By now your frogspawn should have turned into tadpoles, so you can start some careful pond maintenance. Pond weed will cover the surface of a pond in a matter of days. Go carefully as you do this task as there may be some newts living in the bottom of your pond. Leave the pond weed on the side of the pond for a few days to let anything living in there to crawl back into the pond. See our Pond Project.
Set up bee hotels for solitary bees, see our Bee Project.
Replace barley straw bundles, and keep pumps going to circulate and oxygenate the water, which in turn will keep it clear. If you’re building a pond then now is the time to get the job done, as the warmer days will allow you to dig and line the pond without getting too muddy!
By mid-May, the soil will have heated up nicely and the threat of frosts should have now past. However, keep an eye on that weather forecast, the UK has had snow in May a number of times.Â
If you’re passionate about sweet peas (as I know some of you are) then look out for Sweet Pea feed, which will really give your sweet peas a boost.
Strawberries are putting out runners to produce new plants, so you’ll need to nip them off to make sure the plant puts its energy into producing fruit, rather than runners. However, if your strawberry plants are 3 years old this year, make sure you pot up the runners for new plants next year.Â

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