What to Do in the Garden in May

Planning Ahead

• Prepare beds for the garden 1 – 3 weeks before planting.
• Watch any weeds for flowering and setting seed.  If you are trying to prevent these plants from growing in abundance in your garden, you will need to pull them before their flowers mature.
• Mulch to prevent weeds.  Rake back mulch and warm the soil before planting seeds.
• Compost and collect organic matter for the compost pile.
• Compost and amend your soil before planting.
• Plant summer cover crops such as buckwheat, clover, and alfalfa in preparation for the winter garden.
• Watch for slugs and other insect pests on your plants and trees.
• Protect your plants from deer and other wildlife.
• Protect your plants from cold temperatures with a cloche or cold frame.
• Ensure good air flow around your plants to prevent fungal disease.
• Build trellises for vining plants.
• Dry herbs for tea.
• Harvest edible flowers.

In The Vegetable Garden

• Wait until after May 15 or so to plant warm season crops
• Set out tomato plants when the evening temperatures are above 50 degrees.
• Harden off seedlings by placing them outdoors 5 days – 1 week before planting.  Gradually help them adapt to the potency of the sunlight and the wind.  For the first couple days, bring them indoors at night.  On the third day or so, keep them out all night.
• Plant eggplant and pepper starts late in the month.
• Use willow tea or kelp tea diluted in water 10:1 to prevent your plants from experiencing transplanting shock.
• Direct sow cucumbers, melons, squash (summer & winter), and pumpkins after the danger of frost has passed.
• Soak your bean seeds in preparation for planting.  Coat in legume inoculant before planting.
• Remember your succession crops of Radishes and Lettuce.  Plant about every two weeks.
• Sow corn in late May.  Pre-sprout your seeds by soaking in water before planting.  If you live in a wet area, you may want to consider transplants.
• Direct sow outdoors carrots, caraway, cilantro, dill, parsnip, chives, leeks, green onions, amaranth, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, radishes, oriental greens, beets, orach, spinach, chard, quinoa, lettuce, and beans,
• If you have starts, transplant arugula, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbages, cauliflower, oriental greens, kohlrabi, and lettuces in the garden
• By the end of the month, transplant out squashes, cucumbers, pumpkins, basil, and melons.
• Thin carrots, beets, onions, lettuces, parsnips, leeks, and radishes
• Harvest leafy greens.  Remember, the more often you pick, the more you encourage these plants to produce greens for you.  Nitrogen is the crucial nutrient for leafy vegetative growth.

Fruit Trees and Berry Bushes

• Set out mason bee houses.
• Monitor for insect damage and disease.
• Take note of when each fruit tree blooms
• Mulch your blueberry plants heavily with woodchips to help hold water in the summer.
• Divide your strawberry plants if they have not flowered yet.  Transplant new strawberries into the garden.
• Divide and transplant raspberries.
• Control foliar diseases using compost tea on roses, apples, pears, cherry, etc.
• Watch for currant worms.  Ideally, feed the worms to your chickens.
• Check your trees and shrubs for insect or disease problems.
• Spray fruit trees for fungal diseases such as scab and mildew.

Perennials

• Plant flowers that attract beneficial insects and repel pests.
• Top dress your rhubarb plants with compost or manure.
• All flower seeds can be sown in the garden.
• Divide and plant dahlias in the garden.
• Remove the foliage from your bulbs once it withers and turns brown.  Plant annual flowers to take up the newly available space.
• Move tender perennials outside after there is no danger of frost.
• Label the locations of your bulbs for dividing in the fall.
• Transplant any potted plants into larger containers.
• Prune woody plants after they are done blooming.

What to do in the Garden in April

What to do in April

* The average last frost date in Portland, OR is April 26.  Try to hold back from planting warm season veggies until then….

Planning Ahead

• Watch the weather.  Check air temperatures and soil temperatures.
• Prepare beds for the garden 1 – 3 weeks before planting.
• Weed while the ground is soft, wet, and warm and the weeds are young.
• Mulch to prevent weeds.  Rake back mulch and warm the soil before planting seeds.
• Compost and collect organic matter for the compost pile.
• Compost and amend your soil.
• Patrol for slugs.
• Protect your plants from deer and other wildlife.
• Ensure good air flow around your plants to prevent fungal disease.
• Inoculate soil with mycorrhizae.
• Build trellises for vining plants.
• Dry herbs for tea.

In The Vegetable Garden

• Direct sow cold-tolerant vegetables outdoors, such as arugula, beets, broccoli, brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, parsnips, carrots, lettuces, parsley, leeks, radishes, spinach, turnips, quinoa, and shallots outdoors.
• If you have starts, transplant arugula, broccoli, brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, lettuces, and spinach in the garden.  Transplant cabbages by the end of the month.
• Soak your pea seeds in preparation for planting.  Just before planting, cover in legume inoculant.
• Start tomatillos, ground cherries, cucumbers, pumpkins, and squashes (summer and winter) indoors.
• Pre-sprout your potatoes for planting outdoors after they harden off.
• Plant perennial vegetables.
• Fertilize overwintering crops with nitrogen to perk them up.
• Harvest spring ephemerals such as rhubarb, ramps, and spring garlic.
• Harvest Leafy Greens and other remaining crops from the winter garden.

Fruit Trees and Berry Bushes

• Finish planting bare root trees and shrubs.
• Prune woody plants. Prune azaleas, rhododendrons, forsythia, and other flowering shrubs when they are done blooming. Prune summer flowering shrubs before they put on new growth.
• Control foliar diseases using compost tea on roses, apples, pears, cherry, etc.
• Watch for currant worms.  Ideally, feed the worms to your chickens.
• Graft fruit trees.
• Fertilize and prune your berry bushes.
• Divide and transplant strawberries and raspberries.
• Check your trees and shrubs for insect or disease problems.
• Spray fruit trees for fungal diseases such as scab and mildew.
• Inoculate mushrooms in woodchip mulch, straw, or logs.

Perennials

• Label the locations of your bulbs for dividing in the fall.
• Divide, transplant, and fertilize perennials.
• Transplant any potted plants into larger containers.
• Direct sow hardy flowers, such as Borage, Calendula, Feverfew, Love in a Mist, Mallow, Nasturtiums, and Flax.  In late April, sow half-hardy flowers such as Blazing Star, Canna, Chinese Aster, Cosmos, Flowering Tobacco, Lavaterra, Pincushion Flower, and Sunflowers.
• Plant summer blooming bulbs or tubers including Gladiolas, Crocosmia, Dahlias, Calla Lilies, etc.
• Take cuttings of early flowering perennial shrubs and bring indoors for forcing into bloom.

*** As always, please let me know if there is anything that you do in April in your garden that I have omitted from this task list. ***

“Weed” Plant ID

Here are a few pictures that I have taken of some plants considered “weeds” in my area.  Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for this post, I do not have many typical “weeds” to photograph at my house.  I went to the neighbors yards to take some of these pictures.  This list is in no way exhaustive and I hope to add more pictures for identification over time.  You can help by sending me pictures of some in your yard!

A weed could be defined as a plant that is thriving beyond what the gardener desires, such that it is experiencing a great ability to reproduce itself.  I just made that definition up but I hope that you catch the gist.

When I think about “weeds”, I think about opportunistic plants and I think about the seedbank that lies within my soil.  “Weeds” express the conditions of the site.  In a disturbed area, certain plants are the ones that germinate to build nutrients for the soil.  That is why many plants that are considered “weeds” are also dynamic accumulators (plants that help build nutrients for the soil and other plants in the community).  In my garden, I increase the seedbank in the soil by scattering lots of seeds.  This way the opportunistic plants that germinate in an available space are plants that both respond to the conditions of the soil and are plants that I want to grow.

If you are trying to get rid of a plant in your garden, it is important to learn how that plant reproduces so you can remove it at the appropriate time and in the appropriate way.  Most “weeds” spread by seed.  You need to remove these plants from the garden before they flower to avoid any potential of having seed either in your garden or in your compost pile.  Sometimes, hot compost piles can kill weed seeds.  Just to be safe, I try to break the seeding cycle of unwanted plants in the garden by pulling them before they seed and composting them or feeding them to the chickens or rabbits.  As weeds are nutritious for the soil, they are often nutritious for us or our animals.  Make sure you have identified a plant correctly before you eat it or feed it to your animals.   i will indicate how the plants pictured below spread with their image.

Through careful observation over time, you can learn how to identify plants shortly after they germinate.  I hope these pictures aid you in identifying some plants in your landscape.  Please feel free to send any pictures of weedy plants in your yard.  Hopefully, I can identify them and I will add them to this compilation.

Blackberry seeds are often deposited by birds.  The canes of Blackberry are mineral rich but need to be composted in a hot compost to prevent the canes from sprouting.  If you are trying to eradicate Blackberry, make sure you dig out the root ball for that is the concentration of energy underground for this plant.

Snapweed, also known as Bitter Cress or Shotput, is an edible weed that has spring action when the seeds mature.  My chickens love to eat this one.  Beware, if you wait too long to take this one out of the garden, it may hit you in the eye with a seed as it explores with the action of your touch!

Bull Thistle also spreads by seed.  The flowers turn to seed quickly so I try to pull this one as soon as I can, especially because it is so thorny.  Canadian Thistle is different and it spreads by horizontal runners which are difficult to remove.  Canadian Thistle needs to be pulled regularly (or mowed) and it will eventually lose energy and go away.  Both of these plants are dynamic accumulators of iron.

Cleavers is a sticky vining plant the spreads by seed.  It is related to Sweet Woodruff or Lady’s Bedstraw.

As many of us know from making a wish on a Dandelion seedhead, Dandelions spread by seed.  They are very nutritious.  You can eat the greens, roots, or flowers.  I have a whole cookbook dedicated to the Dandelion.

The plant known as Hairy Cat’s Ear looks alot like Dandelion but it has a hairy leaf.  While Dandelion tends to flower in the spring and the fall, Hairy Cat’s Ear flowers in hotter weather, in the summer.  Hairy Cat’s Ear has multiple yellow flowers on its stalk and while they look like Dandelion, they are often a little bit smaller.  The stalk of Hairy Cat’s Ear is not as milky as Dandelion.  Both have similar seedheads that fly through the wind poetically.

Dead Nettle spreads by seed.  It is easiest to identify and to pull once it is flowering as shown here.  It does not sting like Stinging Nettle.  The seeds (berries) of Ivy are spread by birds.  It is a vine that tends to strangle trees and other neighboring plants.

Japanese Knotweed can spread by crown, stem, or root rhizome.  You need to remove all of the plant material to completely eradicate this plant from your garden.

Morning Glory has a flexible root.  It can spread by seed and its roots tend to break off in the soil when pulled.  Each of these broken roots will generate new plants.  To get rid of Morning Glory, you need to remove all plant material.

Nipplewort spreads by seed.  I find that Nipplewort is easiest to pull just before it begins flowering.  Little Nipplewort plants can be tedious to pull since they are so abundant.  As they grow, some plants die through competition.  Once they are large enough to pull, they are easy to remove and make great compost.

Both snapweed and oxalis spread by seed.  Each of these plants have a pod that is filled with seeds that will pop open when it is ripe.  Ensure that you pull these plants before they create the seed.

Oxalis can have red leaves or green leaves.

Wild Geranium also spreads by seed.  The groundcover habit of this plant becomes increasingly sprawling as it gets older.  I find it easiest to pull at this size.

Herb Robert is a type of Geranium, also known as Stinky Bob.  It looks pretty when it is young but as it grows, it expands quickly and drops alot of seed, which is why it is often considered a weed.  Some consider it’s smell foul as a mature plant.  Since it spreads by seed, you can prevent rampancy by pulling it out before it flowers or forms seed.  In my experience, it is quite easy to pull out of the soil.

Yellow Dock has a deep taproot and spreads biennially by seed.  If you cut off the seed, Yellow Dock will regenerate from its roots.  Yellow Dock is a great dynamic accumulator and it makes good compost.  It is also a great medicinal herb.  It can spread rapidly so you may want to keep an eye on it.

Favorite Heirloom Vegetable Seed Companies

These are my favorite seed companies.  All of them have taken the Safe Seed Pledge.

Adaptive Seeds:  http://www.adaptiveseeds.com/

Baker Creek Seeds:  http://www.rareseeds.com/

Nichols Garden Nursery:  https://www.nicholsgardennursery.com/store/

Peace Seedlings: http://www.peaceseedlingsseeds.blogspot.com/ 

Seed Dreams:  http://seeddreams.blogspot.com/

Siskiyou Seeds:  http://www.siskiyouseeds.com/

Uprising Seeds:  http://uprisingorganics.com/index.php

Wild Garden Seeds:  http://www.wildgardenseed.com/index.php

For more seed companies who have taken the Safe Seed Pledge and further information, visit:  http://www.councilforresponsiblegenetics.org/ViewPage.aspx?pageId=261

Make a Zone Map

Now that you have assessed the flows on your site, check out your overlays.  You may notice that there are areas that are used more frequently and areas that are not interacted with often.  A zone analysis is a map that divides a property into areas based on their frequency of use. Frequency of use helps to determine management plans for building soil, planting strategies, necessary structures and tools, watering strategies, etc.

A zone map can convey current interactions on the property.  As you develop your design, you may find that zones change over time as your system becomes more complex.  Your zone map will enhance your efficiency so hopefully, you will be able to get more accomplished.

Below are some common guidelines for zones:

Zone 1 – Areas you visit everyday.

Zone 2 – Places  you visit a couple times a week.

Zone 3 – Places you visit once a week.

Zone 4 – Areas you visit less than once a week.

Zone 5 – Places that you hardly ever visit/interact with

Each person’s zone map is unique.  Zone maps may change in different seasons.

If you live on a small site, zone 1 may be areas that you visit often throughout the day.  On a small site, zone 2 may be places you visit less frequently throughout the day.  In an urban context, you may not have all of the zones on your site.

If you live in an apartment and do not have a car, zone 1 may be the property where your apartment is located.  Zone 2 may be defined as areas that you walk to.  Zone 3 could be a bike ride away.  Zone 4 would be places where you take the bus.  You would need to borrow a car or drive with a friend to places that would be considered zone 5.

The goal is to divide up the property based on frequency of use as a methodology for design. Naturally, we will interact with the areas that we frequent.  A zone map can inform us where to plant tasty berries for frequent harvest or where to place the compost for ease in bringing it outdoors.  You will interact with your landscape more frequently if you pass by the elements that appeal to you often.

The management plan for your landscape changes throughout the zones.  It is most intensive in zone one and decreases in intensity as you progress to zone 5.  You may have different soil building strategies, mulching strategies, and important elements based on frequency of use.

* A zone map should assess how you interact with all spaces on your landscape.  Every spot should be indicated as a specific zone.

On the macroscale, Zones can be considered as you design your life.  I want my food supply to be in zone 1 and a good store for purchasing food to be in zone 3 (a bike ride away) of my macrolandscape.  I like to have my yoga center in zone 2 (an easy walk).  As you look at this concept on the larger scale, think about where you work, where your friends and family live, where you food comes from, and other things that are important to you.  On the microscale, you can create a zone map of your kitchen to help you design the placement of your kitchen supplies or a zone map of your desk to enhance your efficiency.

 

Assess the flows on your site

Take a minute and write down all of the different things that may move throughout your site.

The first thing that you may consider is your own movements throughout the site.  Where do you go on your site and what do you do there?  Do you have seasonal patterns of movement throughout your space?  Do you have places you visit in different times of the day?  You can make an overlay on your base map to represent this analysis.

Next, you may consider how other people in your household move about the site.  Do you have animals?  What do they do throughout the day?  Are there wild animals that visit your space?  You may want to use a different color to convey this analysis on your overlay.

Another flow to consider is water.  Your rainwater falls throughout the site.  Does it pool?  Do you have wet spaces on site?  Are there spaces that you would like to be wetter?  Sometimes, you need to make an overlay just to convey the information about water onsite since it is such an important resource.

Resources are something that moves throughout a site and can create efficiency or clutter.  What are your resources onsite?  Hopefully, you see many resources to work with.  Some things I think about are compost, tools, potting supplies, nursery plants, etc.  Of course, most of these resources are traveling with a human companion.

I like to remind myself that “a resource is only a resource if it is available for use.”  By assessing the flow of resources throughout your site, you can place them in areas where they are accessible with ease.  In permaculture design, we strive to create designs that are efficient and productive.  This practice helps us have more time for enjoying other things.

How to make a rough working Base Map

It’s time to plan your garden for the coming growing season.  To maximize your plot, I find it helpful to make a base map as your foundation for site analysis.  To do a complete analysis, you will want to survey your property and have accurate measurements.  Here is how to make a rough working base map using google maps.

1) Go to maps.google.com and enter in your address.

2) Zoom in until the boundaries of your property are as big as possible in the map.  Make sure the map contains all of your boundaries.

3) Do a screenshot.  Hit shift, command, 4 (at the same time) and a cursor will appear. Move the cursor to the top left corner of the map.  While continuing to hold down the keys, move your mouse to the bottom right corner of the image that you want shown in your map.  Lift up on the keys when the box contains the scope of your base map and some margins.  Margins are helpful for any information that you may want to write on the document.  Make sure you include the scale in the screen shot (found on the bottom left of the screen).

4) Print this image.

5) Trace the outlines of your property and any features that will not change as you design your landscape, such as your house, large trees, driveway, etc.

6) Make sure to label your map with your address and include a north indicator.

7) If you want to take this a step further, visit suncalc.net to figure out the solar aspect on site throughout the year.

Below is a picture of my screenshot of my house.

This is my “to scale” basemap, created by measuring the exact dimensions of the property.