Grow More in 2024/May to Do List/Garden Style nw

e [Music] hi everybody Debbie here with Garden style so today I'm going to discuss what all we can do during the month of May now mind you it's about the middle of May the last two weeks we have been extremely busy trying to get ready for Mother's Day so little late but honestly the things that I'm going to cover with you today are things that'll probably take you all the way to the month of June as well so first of all our temperatures have finally warmed up especially at night to where we are consistently at least 45° and above so what that means is you can start planting all your Tomatoes squash cucumbers Peppers all those warm season loving type vegetables so feel free to go ahead and start planting them uh cuz now it's pretty safe that we're not going to get down down into the 30s again at least from what I can tell over the next couple of weeks and of course the further we get into June the warmer it's going to get now as far as warm seas and veggies go I have noticed that um as soon as mine had gone into the ground they have perked up right away so that just means that the soil is warm enough and they are raring to go so finally got all my tomatoes planted um I don't plant a whole lot of peppers here cuz I honestly don't have very good luck with them here in the Northwest some of you might um but Tomatoes they do very well with and of course squash zucchini I only plant one plant of zucchini or end up having to feed the entire neighborhood by the end of the summer so warm seasoned veggies are definitely something you can feel very safe about putting into the ground if you haven't already now uh annuals anything like impatience Bonas patunas calra coas uh Nick Tiana marles all of those fabulous spring and summer annuals you can put into your containers as well into is into your Gardens if I can talk today I just got through edging all of the beds here in the backyard I still have the front to do it has finally gotten dry enough to where I can run the EDG around the edges of them and man what a difference it makes when you have nice clean crispy edges on all your beds and it just psyches me out to just get out there and start planting more and more and more I keep coming home with more goodies and I'll introduce you to a few uh that I've already put into containers some of which are new uh because I was going to do a container video for you but I might as well just show you what I've put in there already and I still have quite a few more to go so never fear I will cover some more containers with you here in the near future but first for the grow more in 24 I wanted to cover all the things we can start doing here in the month of May so plant in planting planting is of course uh first on the menu and there were a lot of people in uh the nursery in the last couple of weeks especially during Mother's Day weekend picking up their hanging baskets as well as all their flowers to start brightening and coloring up their Gardens now with that in mind I am speaking to all of you here in zone 8 which is located here in the Northwest now I kind of wanted to explain zones a little bit um because I've had quite a few questions about them and had folks leaving me comments that they live in a Zone 8 but you know a lot of their weather is not the same as ours and that's very true now they have a guide um and they split out the zones across the country according to hardiness and that hardiness can be cold hardiness as well as heat so on most of your plant tags they will tell you what plant or what the plant is hearty too um whether it be a cold hearty zone five or a warm hearty zone 9 Zone 10 so the uh higher up you go it gets warmer and of course the lower the hardiness um it just means the plant can put up with more cold and actually survive a winter so it's really important that you watch those types of things when you're picking out plants now annuals of course are excluded from that but a Zone 8 here in the Pacific Northwest compared to a Zone 8 in Texas for example or North Carolina can be completely different and one of the biggest reasons there are huge differences in zones even if it's the same Zone whether it's Zone a 8A or Zone 8 B is the daylight now up here in the Northwest we are now in some of the longest days of the year for us from May June July we end up having the sun coming up at 4:30 in the morning and the sun does not go down until 9:30 10:00 at night so we have super long days here and that definitely affects how plants react how quickly they wake up after winter and how quickly they fall asleep in the fall now we also are exposed to the water here we're actually pretty much surrounded by the water because I live here on the peninsula so if you have huge bodies of water like we do we have the pit sound that affects our weather here it also uh makes our weather a little more tepid um not quite as cold say for instance uh Zone 8 in Texas now there's a little more extreme temperatures there there you can get really super high heat up to 100° or you can get really really cold as we all know in Texas North Carolina for example there's an 8 a 8B in North Carolina except that they can be very humid and plants react to that as well so daylight down in Texas is a little more even being they're closer to the Equator than we are up here so plants don't have these big swings in daylight and they do react to that um for us up here in the Pacific Northwest it takes longer for our plants to actually wake up from the winter time going into spring but once we hit the month of April we're gaining three almost four minutes of day of Daylight every single day it just it's like a rush of daylight that comes at you where if you live further south you don't really notice those extremes quite as much you notice your days getting longer but I could be talking to somebody on the phone for instance family who live down in the state of Alabama and it'll be 9:00 my time and it is still very much light out where down in Alabama it's already dark so big difference as to where you are in the hemisphere and how uh your plants react even though you considered a Zone 8 Zone eights depending on where you are in the hemisphere can be very different and your plants will react differently as well so I kind of just wanted to throw that in because I've had quite a few questions about uh zones so here we are in the Pacific Northwest we have very tepid weather here we have longer summers than most people do um we have a long planting season here we can start planting as early as January uh with be root trees and shrubs and we can keep on planting all the way through the summer into the fall October November only because our ground never really freezes here now I sto planting in December and January just because I don't enjoy being out and pouring rain doing it and that's usually where our weather kicks in big time is November December January is where we get the most rain I think November is our rainiest month out of the entire year so that's when we all just whip back inside and hide out for 2 or three months uh before coming back out so anyway just a little blurb about the zones so what else can we do during the month of May well I had already fed my lawn at the end of April so I'm already looking to feed my lawn again at the end of May um and then that's it it we're done feeding our grass for the rest of the summer you don't really need to pick up and fertilize anything again until September October um of course edging your Lawns and whatever you do keep them watered we are already experiencing a mild drought at the moment we didn't get enough snow pack during the winter time up here in the Northwest so they're already warning us that we might be in for another long dry summer so if you've planted a lot of new plants like I have all you got to do is just stay on top of your watering and make sure they stay well watered through throughout the summer until the following year when they're a little more established then you don't have to Baby them quite as much okay what else can we do during the month of May of course uh continue to keep cleaning up um weeding is a big deal during the month of May this is when you really start to see their ugly heads so if you haven't finished your mulching or started mulching now is a good time to start finishing that up getting your mulch down not only will it help with uh watering and holding the moisture in but it definitely definitely helps keep the weeds down uh I had a brand new layer of mulch put down last year and I'm already noticing this year that I have very few weeds to deal with which is amazing and I usually replenish my mulch which is a real fine bark mulch I like the real fine mulch only because it um helps to create like a blanket and it kind of interweaves itself and that's what helps to block the weeds out and also hold the moisture in and then during the winter time it will also protect your roots from freezing uh gives your plants a little more protection during the winter time so I am big on mulch uh let's see what else of course go out and find some beautiful containers and start planting those up for the deck uh or the patio or plant a fabulous looking container and place it out in the middle of the garden um I love containers and Gardens but I will give you a hint if you're going to put a pot on the ground I would make sure to put a concrete block or something solid underneath the pot cuz I have put pots out in the garden before without anything underneath and The Roots will just grow straight through the hole and down into the ground underneath the pot so just a little hint there for you guys if you're going to put a pot out in the garden make sure there's something underneath it to keep the roots from making contact with the soil underneath or you're in for a wrestling match if you don't I had already had that problem last year okay pruning so like shrubs behind me like the roie right here he's probably good to go for another week or two but as soon as he starts dropping all of his blooms um if I feel the need I'm going to go in and start trimming him uh get him back in shape and looks like I have a visitor well hello benty how are you just thought I would show you my little visitor here y he just thought he would come by and say hello yes yes comes out here to keep me company then anyway he's always out here you know letting me know his opinion on whatever it is I'm doing out here in the yard it's always fun to have your pets out with you when you're out gardening so anyway pruning so any of your uh shrubs like lilacs for instance uh rendin aelas all those early spring blooming type shrubs as soon as they start to get done and start dropping their flowers that's a pretty safe time for all you folks to to go in and start uh trimming them up and giving them uh you know a better shape than what they already have I already see some branches and some of mine that are kind of sticking out on the sides then I just need to kind of trim back and and bring back their shape so I'm going to fix this a little bit because it looks like it sank down after I talked to the kitty there we go so pruning is another really good thing to start doing during the month of May other than that we are slow holy but surely starting to reach into the month of June and July and then it's all about just maintaining what you already have um now where we are in zone 8 in the Pacific Northwest we can continue to keep planting and I do I'm always bringing more plants in I have like an acre out here so it just never seems like I can fill it up and I'm always finding more empty holes to put things into um we did suffer a pretty severe winter this last year I've had a lot of customers coming into the nursery talking about plants that have been taken out uh by the very cold freeze that we had we had 3 or 4 days where it got down to 13 14° and stayed that way um it wouldn't get above 20 during the day and that is just deadly for plants so a lot of folks lost plants that they had had for years it was just one of those things where we had a warmup during the month of December um we actually had another warmup in January and one once it warms up and it gets above freezing and kind of stays there we kind of have some 45 50° temperatures right smack in the middle of the winter and what that will do is cause your plants it'll cause the sap in the plants to start flowing again they're they're thinking hey we're right on the edge of spring but then when it turns around and it zaps them when it gets down back to 20 25° again it'll zap them for good and uh we suffered quite a few losses at the nursery and I've also heard a lot of customers coming in complaining about plants they've had for years and years and years and they've lost them this year so you know it's just one of the hazards of being a gardener is we have losses and we have wins but the nice part is is you can always go into your local nursery and find a replacement uh maybe something even better than what was there before um but it can still be a little disheartening when you have a favorite plant and you find out that it just did not survive the winter so if you're one of those people I'm just here to reassure you that you're not alone okay there's not a whole lot else that I can cover with you as far as what to do in May because it's a free-for-all you can do just about anything um and it's just lovely to be able to sit out here it's approximately it's about 72 73° right now it's getting later on in the evening uh but it did get up to 75 today and it was just Pleasant and it looks like that our weather is is going to hold out for the next 10 days at least and we're going to be sitting in the lower to mid 70s for the next 10 days the only drawback is is we're not going to be getting a whole lot of rain so stay on top of the watering um I prefer to water in the morning as opposed to at night but for some of us some of us who work um we sometimes have no choice but to water at night and if you have to just try and keep the water off the leaves of your plants um as best you can and uh but I try to get most of my watering done early in the morning so that way they have the rest of the day to dry out and uh not quite as stressed out either but there's times where I don't have a choice I'll have to come home and hit containers for instance uh quickly before I eat dinner and make sure that they're well watered fertilizing if you haven't fertilized all your plants by now you need to do that try and do that before the end of May while plants are still actively growing um when it comes to deck containers and hanging baskets I water mine every other week um I use a liquid fertilizer it's just easier for me to apply it um something like a miracle grow bloom or just a regular Miracle Grow if you have a lot of flowers in your containers I prefer something that encourages more Bloom rather than more leaves uh so read the package so that you know what it is that you're fertilizing with but your containers especially are getting watered every single day so they need fertilizer more often CU a lot of times you're just rinsing those nutrients out of the containers so good idea to do that okay of course if you have any questions or comments you can leave those in the description box down below here um I will be covering containers in my next video as well as a whole bunch of new plants that I have been putting out here in the yard um I'm really excited about a couple of containers that I have put together I've actually used some house plants as some of the filler plants that I've put in there so I'll go over that as well um and a couple of new containers that uh I have in mind that I haven't quite put together yet but I would just rather do that with you guys rather than you seeing the after okay um of course if you want to take advantage of our newsletter at sunnyrest nursery.com you can just go to our website and sign up for our newsletter which will be coming out by monthly uh in fact I'm due to come out with another one here now that we're coming up on the 15th of May um and that's about all I have for you folks today I hope you've been able to get out there and get your hands dirty and I hope all you moms out there had a fabulous Mother's Day I know we did it was extremely busy and we watched a lot of beautiful plants go out of the nursery and a lot of smiles on Mom's faces so that's always fun uh my favorite time of the year all right you guys take care keep those hands dirty and we'll talk soon bye for now [Music] [Music] oh oh [Music]