To care and to tend
Garden month May: The three most important tools for beds and lawns
Some tools should be ready for gardening in May. Here you can find out what these are and what is important when gardening in the merry month.
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The merry month of May makes allotment and balcony gardeners sweat. In the vegetable garden, the beds and young plants must now be nurtured and cared for. Read here what needs to be done and which tools you need for this.
Small gardeners and allotment gardeners can get confused in May. Because with the rising and constant early summer temperatures, you have your hands full in the ornamental and vegetable garden. The blades of grass can hardly be stopped when they grow and must be tamed and watered regularly. The young vegetables also need to be cared for. In order for tomatoes, cucumbers & Co. to feel comfortable outside, you first have to put your hands on the beds. You should also keep an eye on the berry bushes and fruit trees in May.
These tools will get your garden moving in May:
1. (small)-hoe
Anyone who has not yet prepared the beds for their young plants should do so slowly. The seedlings should be fit for freedom by now. Don’t forget to put the tender little plants in the fresh air during the day in the days before moving from the window sill to the outside. This hardens and makes cucumbers and the sensitive tomatoes in particular more resistant to wind and slightly lower night temperatures. But back to the beds: They should first be roughly freed from all the green that has spread there in spring. A small combination hoe or a is sufficient for this Small cultivators (e.g. from Gardena). The hoes with a long handle are a bit easier on the back and just as suitable as these Solid hoe from Fiskars.
Depending on which vegetables you want to put in the bed, it can also make sense to give the soil a little fresh cell treatment. The best way to do this is to work in some fresh compost from your own garden. Alternatively, the young plants are of course also happy about a liter or two of packed soil. For classics such as cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes or kohlrabi, potting soil enriched with guano is ideal Tomato and vegetable soil from Plantaflor at. Important: Do not just scratch the surface of the bed with the hoe. The deeper and more intensively the soil is loosened and aerated, the better rain and irrigation water can be absorbed. At the latest after the Ice Saints (2022 between May 11th and 15th) the young plants are allowed to go outside. The most important helpers when moving: a couple Planting and soil gloves and a small one Trowel for the planting hole.
2. Watering can/garden sprayer
Nothing works without water in the garden month of May. The plants that have been moved outdoors must be watered well so that they can survive the move unscathed. The lawn also needs to be watered, especially if it has been touched up in a few places. If there is no rain, the supplies collected from the rain barrel should be used to help out. And for this you need the good old one watering can ran. When lawning, however, it is better to use a garden hose for practical reasons, the one with a Garden shower (e.g. from Gardena) can be upgraded. Tip: If possible, water the lawn in the evening hours. In the morning the green still feeds on the dampness of the night. In the midday hours, the water evaporates very quickly, especially when there is strong sunlight. There is also a risk that the stalks will “burn”.
3. Spreader
The spreader is not used very often in the garden. But once you learn to love the little helper on two wheels, you will lawn fertilizer, seeds, sand & co. Never scatter by hand again. In May, gardeners in particular save time whose lawns suffered during the winter. Sowing a lawn by hand is an art in itself and a job with a high potential for frustration, especially when it is windy. It works much more evenly with one Spreader (e.g. from Substral). And how are you?
- Fill in the grit
- Set the desired spreading quantity (per m²).
- Carefully drive over the area to be spread
Particularly practical: some spreaders have an integrated spreader stop, which can be used to briefly interrupt spreading by hand, for example when turning the cart. If the shed is already bursting at the seams, a practical one will do hand spreader this task just as reliably. Here, however, you should make sure that there is as little wind as possible when spreading. Otherwise, evenly distributing the spreading material from this height is almost impossible.
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