May Gardening Tips for Southeast Wisconsin🌼

May Gardening Tips for Southeast Wisconsin🌼

Seasonal Tips

Plant, Protect, and Prepare for a Successful Season

May is a pivotal month for gardeners in Southeast Wisconsin. With the soil warming and the last frost dates typically passing between May 10 and 20 ​, it’s the ideal time to dive into planting, maintenance, and preparation for a thriving summer garden. Here are five essential gardening tasks to focus on this month.

1. Plant Warm-Season Vegetables and Annuals

By mid-May, it’s generally safe to plant warm-season vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, and beans. Soil temperatures should consistently reach at least 60°F for optimal growth. This is also the perfect time to add vibrant annuals such as marigolds, petunias, and zinnias to your garden beds and containers.​

Planting Tip: Before transplanting seedlings started indoors, harden them off by gradually exposing them to outdoor conditions over a week. This process minimizes transplant shock and enhances their chances of thriving.​

2. Divide Overcrowded Perennials

Spring is an excellent time to divide perennials like hostas, daylilies, and ornamental grasses.

  • Encourages healthier, more vigorous plants
  • Helps control the size of mature clumps
  • Provides free plants to expand your garden or share with others​

After dividing, water thoroughly and mulch around the new plantings to conserve moisture and reduce stress.​

3. Feed Your Plants

The burst of spring growth can quickly deplete soil nutrients. Use a balanced, slow-release fertilizer to nourish your garden beds, shrubs, and trees. Be sure to choose fertilizers appropriate for specific plant needs, such as acid-loving varieties like azaleas and rhododendrons.​

Fertilizer Tip: Applying fertilizer just before a rainstorm can help the nutrients seep into the soil more effectively.​

4. Prune Spring-Flowering Shrubs After Bloom

Shrubs that bloom in early spring, such as lilacs, forsythias, and viburnums, should be pruned soon after they finish flowering. Proper pruning encourages:​

  • Better shape and structure
  • More abundant blooms for next year
  • Removal of any dead or damaged wood​

Waiting too long to prune can reduce next year’s flowering.​

5. Prepare for Common Pests

As the weather warms, insect pests such as aphids, slugs, and beetles begin to appear. Early preventative measures are important to keep damage minimal without resorting to heavy chemical use.​

Pest Management Strategies:

  • Encourage beneficial insects like ladybugs and predatory wasps
  • Hand-pick larger pests whenever possible
  • Use row covers to protect young vegetable plants
  • Keep garden beds weed-free, as weeds can harbor pests​

May is the Month of Opportunity

The work you put into your garden now will pay off all season long. Whether you’re planting new flowers, setting out vegetable transplants, or installing a fountain to create a peaceful retreat, Heritage Hill Nursery is here to help. Stop by for expert advice, fresh plants, and the tools you need to make this your best gardening season yet.​

April is Early Spring – Start Some Preparations & Planting

Seasonal Tips, Older Entries

As we approach April, you may have gotten out into the garden and you might find that your garden plants have begun their spring growth. But in addition you may find that your weeds have been just as busy over the past few months.

April is the time to really start prepping. As soon as the ground thaws, you can consider planting shrubs, like Spirea. Shrubs are an important feature in a landscape. Evergreen shrubs become anchors of permanence and deciduous shrubs (like Spirea) add interest with their changing foliage and blossoms throughout the seasons. They add scale and structure to the garden in conjunction with trees and other perennials.

Other things to keep in mind for April: 

  • When annual beds can be worked, turn over green manure crop such as annual rye in beds for annuals and vegetables. If none was planted, top-dress with compost or rotted manure.
  • Remove mulch from spring flowering bulb beds.
  • Container grown or balled and bur lapped trees and shrubs can be planted at any time during the growing season.
  • Divide perennials and pot for the PCMG plant sale by the end of the month. This will provide roots time to get established.
  • Prune and fertilize all bush fruits and grapes. Fertilize fruit trees as soon as possible after ground thaws but before blossoming.
  • Plant rhubarb and asparagus as soon as ground can be worked.
  • Remove rose cones when soil thaws. Gradually remove soil mound from around rose plants.
 

Courtesy UWM – Portage Extension More

Questions about planting, feeding and watering? Take advantage of our knowledgeable horticulturist & owner, Jason. He is here to help you make good decisions on what will work best and how to properly tend to your new plantings. Visit the Heritage Hill Nursery and garden center now! We are conveniently located, close to Cedarburg, Jackson, West Bend, Slinger, WI.

 

On Sale for April! 

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