Is Your Garden Ready For the Heat? Must-Do May Tasks

It's May. All that hard work you've done prepping the soil, planting at the right time, is starting to pay off with harvests. In this video, I'll help you know when to harvest, what else to do in the garden this month, and my top tips to help you have a successful summer garden. If you'd like to follow along, grab my free May checklist on growinginthegarden.com. I'm Angela from Growing in the Garden. My garden is in Mesa, Arizona. I want to help you succeed, even if you're gardening in tough conditions. You've cared for your garden. Now it's time to start enjoying your harvest. Let's go over how to tell when crops are ready and what to keep an eye out for as temperatures heat up. Onions are a long season crop. It feels like they're forever in the garden. Then all of a sudden, as they near harvest time, those bulbs start to form. Onions will tell you when it's almost harvest time. Those stems will flop over. At that point, you know it's not going to bulb up anymore, but those skins are going to begin tightening around the onion. Stop watering and let them cure right in the soil for a few days, and then bring them inside and let them finish curing for the longest storage life. These onions look great. They're starting to bulb up, but these onions, a lot of them are starting to bolt. Onions bolt when they're under stress, usually from temperature fluctuations from hot to cold, like we've had this year. When an onion bolts, it's shifting production from those nice big bulbs into a flower stock that will produce seeds. You can't stop it once it happens, and that onion won't store well. It's best to use it right away or preserve it. I'll let these continue growing. Hopefully those bulbs will get nice and large before it flops over and tells me it's done. Not all of these are bolting, but the ones that are, I'm going to harvest and preserve. I'll leave one or two for the pollinators. They love these blooms. It's easy to tell if it's bolting. This central stem gets a little cap on it that will develop into the flower stock. I preserve by dehydrating or freeze drying. By taking out some of these bolted onions, that will allow more space for the ones that haven't bolted to grow. Check your carrots. They may be ready to harvest this month. If you're not sure, dig around in the soil and see how big that carrot is getting. It's best to harvest before it gets too hot. Once it gets hot, the flavor isn't as good. If you see a flower stock forming, harvest right away. That means the carrot is bolting and it will be inedible very soon. Bolted carrots are tough and woody. So if you see this central stock start to get thick, not like the other ones, that means it's bolting and this is going to grow tall and form flowers. Here's another one that's bolting. This variety, a lot of them bolted. Carrots are biennials, which means they normally flower in the second year, but the wild temperature fluctuations we've had this year, it's causing a lot of carrots to bolt. Harvest them right away or let them go to seed and flower for next year. Garlic is usually ready to harvest when a lot of lower leaves die back and turn brown, but you still have the top three or four leaves green and growing. If you're not sure if it's time to harvest, dig down and harvest one of the bulbs and see. The garlic should be well formed with the cloves separated. If you wait too long to harvest, the bulbs can split and if you harvest too early, it won't store well. If you're not sure, harvest one and see. That's the best way to tell if it's ready to harvest. You can harvest Itoi onions this month. Harvest, use and enjoy them. If you want to save the bulbs for storage, it's best to leave them in the ground until all of the greens die back. That will usually happen later in the summer. This is my favorite stage to harvest and use the Itoi onions. There's a lot of usable onion. It's amazing that all of this came from one little shriveled up Itoi onion. Spring-planted tomatoes are often ready to harvest beginning in May. Hopefully you're getting that plant to set a lot of fruit. Once nighttime temperatures come up and daytime temperatures go up, fruit production will slow down, but the tomatoes that are on the plant will continue to ripen. Once it gets hot, it can take a long time for those tomatoes to turn red, so I like to harvest them at the first blush of color and bring them inside. They'll ripen more quickly indoors. This one is almost starting to ripen, but I'll leave it on until I see a nice blush of color. Summer squash grows quickly. Check your plants every day and harvest when they're young and tender for the best flavor. When you're harvesting, check under the leaves for squash bugs. They can multiply quickly and destroy a plant. Harvest tomatillos when those husks get papery and the fruit fills the husk. They may also fall off of the plant when they're ready. When you're out there harvesting, check the leaves and undersides of leaves for the three-lined potato beetle. They love tomatillos. At the first sign of them, check daily and remove any signs. Eggs, adults, nymphs, everything. These aren't quite ready yet, but the husks are beginning to fill out and hopefully they'll be ready soon. As temperatures rise and crops finish up, it's best to put small containers away. They are so hard to garden in over the summer. I bring them over here, store them under this table until I need them again in the fall. Empty small pots and use the soil to top off garden beds or add it to your compost. These thin metal containers aren't very deep and they heat up a lot during the summer as well. If you're gardening in containers over the summer, put them in an area that gets afternoon shade and group them together for an insulating effect. To keep basil full and productive, keep harvesting. Cut it back above two sets of leaves so you get full, bushy plants with lots of basil. Set one, set two. By cutting this stem, we're telling these other little leaves here that it's time to grow. So instead of one long stem going that way, we're now going to have two, which will make a fuller plant. Let herbs like this cilantro, dill, and fennel flower. Those humble shaped flowers are magnets for beneficial insects and pollinators. Those flowers will develop into seeds you can eat and use or save to plant next year. Feed citrus this month with a citrus fertilizer. This is the second of the three applications we do during the year. The first one around Valentine's Day, the second one in May around Memorial Day, and finally at Labor Day in September. It's an easy way to remember how often to feed your citrus. I'm also feeding all of my fruit trees with Nutrient Plus from Arizona Worm Farm. It will help protect them for the hot summer ahead. I've begun feeding my fruit trees regularly with this and I've seen such a difference. It's helped my trees recover that had a really hard time last summer. Keep your fruit harvested. Enjoy all of the mulberries, blackberries, and strawberries that ripen this month. Grapefruit continues to ripen this month and early peaches and apricots might be ready too. Keep a close eye on grapevines. Check for grape leaf skeletonizers. If you spot damage, treat with Bt. Thin fruit clusters if they're overcrowded to improve airflow and fruit quality. Let wildflowers go to seed. Save some seed for later and scatter the rest to encourage more blooms next season. Once they're done, remove the spent plants. Now is the time to swap out cool season flowers for summer blooms, but if you're still enjoying the spring flowers and that's what you love, leave them in. Enjoy the flowers as long as you can. Your summer flowers may not look as good, but it's okay to prioritize the flowers that you love the most. That's one of the reasons I love growing cool season flowers in containers. I can let them go until they're finished and then put those containers away until fall. These snapdragons have been beautiful, but I want something else growing here and it needs to get established before it gets hot. So I'm taking out these snapdragons, replenishing the soil, and adding some dwarf zinnias to this area. If you see circles cut out of your rose leaves, don't worry about it. That's leaf cutter bee damage. It's not harming the plant, but it's helping the bees. Keep the blooms coming by deadheading spent roses and feeding your roses lightly this month. If you're growing alyssum like I am around your roses to help with the aphids, it might start to fade this month. When it dies back, pull it out, add a nice layer of compost and then wood chips to help protect your plant over the summer. I'm leaving this alyssum in as long as possible. I love all of the beneficial insects it attracts. If you spot powdery mildew, remove affected leaves and then to keep it from spreading to the rest of the plant, apply my go-to solution. One teaspoon potassium bicarbonate with one teaspoon liquid castile soap in a quart of water. Spray the plant weekly and that should take care of the problem. After spraying, I do a quick rinse of the leaves to prevent any sun damage. You should start to see a lot of beneficials show up in your garden this month. Ladybugs, praying mantis, assassin bugs, hover flies, all of those beneficials are here to help you out. Continue practicing organic gardening principles. Don't use pesticides. Allow herbs to flower. All of those little things you do will have a big impact on your garden. Before we wrap up, here are my top five tips for a successful summer garden. Don't let your soil die. Add compost and worm castings when you plant. Keep your worm bins active. Don't let beds dry out. Make sure we're keeping the soil alive all through summer. Get things planted now. Planting early gives plants longer to get established before the heat of summer comes. Mulch everything. A thick layer of mulch on your garden and your fruit trees helps protect the soil, conserve moisture, and keep soil temperatures down. Add shade as needed. If your garden is in full sun, adding shade can help protect sun-sensitive plants and help them grow better. Check your soil. As temperatures climb, the watering needs of your plants will go up. Water deeply less often to encourage nice deep roots. With a little care this month, your garden can keep producing all the way through summer. Download the checklist to help you stay on track. Celebrate the winds this month and enjoy the harvest. Don't be afraid of summer. We can do this. Want a thriving desert garden? Join my monthly online classes, live or on replay, and get instant access to past classes and journals. Bring your questions and let's grow together in Growing in the Garden Academy. Just download the checklist. Bring it on. Oh yeah. We can do it. Don't be afraid of summer. We can do this. A little bit less. Okay. And celebrate. Okay. Again.