Tom Massey's WaterAid garden at the Chelsea Flower Show 2024
14.05.2024 - 14:47 / houseandgarden.co.uk / Clare Foster
May is historically the hungry gap in the vegetable garden, because it is the time when the winter crops run out and before the summer crops get going. If you have been well organised, you may have some early crops of salad leaves, broad beans, radishes and even strawberries to harvest towards the end of the month – as well as asparagus, which is at its prime now. But the main focus this month is the sowing, nurturing and tending of your crops, as growth accelerates. Potatoes should be earthed up so the tubers are not exposed to light, while peas and broad beans need supporting with pea sticks or canes and twine as they get bigger. Weeding must be done regularly (little and often is my motto) and, if the weather is dry, watering is essential. It is best done as a thorough soak every few days rather than a scant daily sprinkling. At the start of May, I sow tender crops like tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes in seed trays and individual pots. I keep these in the greenhouse until later in the month, when it has warmed up and they can go outside. As the month goes on, the focus shifts to planting out. I find it very satisfying to be able to plant a neat row of seedlings along a garden line, rather than try the lottery of direct sowing into the ground, then thinning out. Using the no-dig method, I will have already prepared my beds with a layer of well-rotted compost. Just before planting out, I will rake the bed to break down any larger clods and give the seedlings a better chance of establishing.
May’s crop is asparagus and the first spears from your own garden are a real treat. Usually planted as crowns in spring, this perennial needs a year or two to establish before you can harvest it, but little upkeep thereafter. Cut
Tom Massey's WaterAid garden at the Chelsea Flower Show 2024
Collaborative post
A lilac bush can be a bit dull when not in bloom, but the larger forms can be livened up by sending a climber through them.
The English country garden, more specifically the cottage garden, is so intensely romantic and full of charm that even the most ardent minimalists would struggle to deny a soft spot for them. Blousy, abundant and floriferous, they’re a tangle of girlish colour, soft shapes and accidental magic. But underneath it all, they’re actually quite hard to pull off and often true labours of love.
The goal from a visit to the Chelsea Flower Show is to come away with your head full of ideas and inspiration. Sometimes the show gardens can feel unattainable – too esoteric, too wild or too zany for your own back garden. This year however there are plenty of clever, stylish and down-to-earth gardens that offer ideas for real gardens. Here are a few of the best.
Tom Stuart-Smith's National Garden Scheme Garden
A young multi-stemmed olive tree in Umberto Pasti's Moroccan garden
Joe and Laura Carey
For the last 19 years I have spent the third week in May at the Chelsea Flower show. It's one of those Great British institutions that just has to be experienced — a chance to see the country's best horticultural performers all in one space, to glean ideas, spot trends and talk to the people who make our gardens grow.
Drought-tolerant, laden with nectar, evergreen, long-flowering, and so pungent that it fills the garden with scent, lavender is deservedly popular. The late garden designer Rosemary Verey said, «You can never have too much of it in your garden». In its preferred conditions, of well-drained soil that is baked by the sun, it is easy to grow.
A city garden by Luciano Giubbilei, where an interesting mix of shapes and textures is provided by the foliage of a multi-stemmed Acer palmatum, a wisteria and a mound of Euphorbia mellifera.
At the back of the house, Adirondack chairs are placed beside a border with a small standard wisteria, a box spiral and purple Iris ‘Art Deco’ set off by lime-green euphorbia. An unknown red rose on the wall is from Mark Rumary’s 1960s scheme.