| For the Jacksonville Florida Times-Union USA TODAY NETWORK
It’s a great time to be outside. Flowers are in bloom, gardens are growing and spring is in full swing as summer approaches. While things are still bearable, May is an excellent time to prepare for tougher gardening months. Summer storms (including hurricanes), moisture, heat, and lots of insects are on the move, but here are some tips to help make this month successful.
Prepare for the storms ahead
June marks the start of hurricane season in the Atlantic, making May a great time to get ready. Have dead or other dangerous trees removed, pruned, and clean up any garden debris or material that could be airborne during a storm. For large pruning jobs, proper pruning and tree management are crucial. So hire an ISA-certified arborist. A comprehensive list of these people who work in our area can be found at www.treesaregood.org/findanarborist.
If you are doing the cut yourself, be careful not to do the usual “hurricane cut” on the palms of your hands. This can increase the risk of damage, pests, and disease. Never prune green fronds with palms and if they are healthy they shouldn’t pose a threat in a storm.
Proper propagation
Every day it seems that more and more landscapes are waking up when perennials appear and develop new growth and new flowers. May is a great time to take advantage of this fresh growth and reproduce. Taking cuttings from tender and woody plants can lead to the propagation of new plants in your landscape and home, especially if you find friends to trade with. The methods vary between plants, with some being very simple and some being near impossible. Further information can be found at https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/mg108.
Insects on the move
Often times, while the garden is growing, pests are not far away. Keep an eye on the landscape and garden for any mites, aphids, and other insect pests. One major pest you are likely to see right now appears to be like millions of tiny black locusts, especially if you have crinum lilies. These are young locusts that will grow into the big yellow ones later in the summer. They can be controlled by some pesticides at this early age, but as they grow the best control is crushing them.
Summer vegetable time
As summer approaches, the list of vegetables we should plant shrinks dramatically. The opportunity for tomatoes, peppers, and other staples is gone, but you can start now with okra, sweet potatoes, and peas from the south as they can tolerate the heat. Look for pests and diseases, and water and fertilize as needed so your garden can thrive well into summer, when many plants stop growing and can die from stress. The good news is that you can transplant some spring vegetables for a second harvest in late summer and early fall.
‘June’ fall
Plants can become stressed with late spring weather conditions. If your citrus or other fruit trees are high in bloom or young fruit, these stressors can cause an event known as the June Drop, which can be a problem in our area even in May. If this happens, don’t panic. This is the way the tree says, “I need to focus my energy elsewhere, and rarely does it drop all of its fruit. Roll the blows with this problem and just make sure you are properly caring for your trees as well.” that you still get one. ” Quality harvest later in the season.
Things to plant in May:
Vegetables: Southern peas, Swiss chard, okra, and sweet potatoes.
Yearbooks: Calliopsis, Celosia, Coleus, Crossandra, Exacum, Gaillardia, Gazania, Hollyhock, Impatiens, Kalanchoe, Marigold, Nicotiana, Ornamental Pepper, Pentas, Evergreen, Portulaca, Salvia, Thunbergia, Torenia, Verbena and Zinnia.
Onions, tubers or rhizomes: Alstroemeria, Aztec lily, begonia, blood lily, caladium, kaffir lily, wandering iris, African lily, spider lily and tiger flower.
Wayne Hobbs is an environmental horticultural consultant in Clay County.
