May is one of those months where the garden suddenly starts asking for attention.
One week everything looks like it is just waking up, and the next week the pots need planting, the borders need filling, the hanging baskets are ready, the grass has taken off, and there are ten jobs that all seem to need doing at once.
That is normal for this time of year, especially here in Lancashire where spring can be a bit stop-start. We can have sunshine, wind, rain and a chilly evening all in the same week, so it is worth choosing plants and products that suit real gardens rather than just what looks good for five minutes on a warm afternoon.
If you want your garden looking good before June, now is the time to get organised. Not perfect. Just organised enough to give your pots, borders, baskets and planting areas a strong start before summer properly gets going.
At Old Oak Farm Nurseries in Hoghton, near Preston, we see the same questions every year around this time:
- What can I plant now?
- What works well together in pots?
- Are hanging baskets ready?
- How often should I water everything?
- What compost should I use?
- What do I need before the weather warms up?
So, here is a practical guide to the May garden jobs worth doing before June arrives.
-What to plant now before summer gets going
May is a busy planting month because there is so much choice around.
For instant colour, seasonal bedding plants are still one of the easiest ways to brighten up pots, borders, baskets and patio areas. They are useful if you want the garden to look cheerful quickly, especially around doorways, seating areas and the parts of the garden you see every day.
Summer bedding can be used on its own for strong colour, or mixed in with longer-lasting plants to make things look a bit more natural. You do not always need rows and rows of the same thing. A few well-chosen plants in the right spot can make a big difference.
For borders, May is also a good time to look at perennials. These are the plants that come back year after year, so they are a good choice if you want to build a garden rather than start again every season. Many perennials are getting going properly now, and May is usually a strong month for choice.
If your garden needs more shape and structure, then shrubs are worth looking at too. Bedding plants give you the colour, but shrubs give the garden its bones. They can help with height, screening, evergreen interest, flowers, foliage and structure through the year.
A good garden usually has a mix of all three:
- Bedding for seasonal colour.
- Perennials for repeat interest.
- Shrubs for structure and shape.
That combination tends to work better than filling every gap with one type of plant and hoping for the best.
How to pair plants in pots and containers
Pots are brilliant for patios, front doors, small spaces, rented gardens, courtyards and any area where you want colour without digging up a border.
The trick is not to cram in plants at random. A good pot usually needs a bit of structure.
Start with something upright in the middle or towards the back, depending on where the pot will sit. This gives height and stops the display looking flat. Then add flowering plants around it for colour. These are the plants that do most of the showing off. Next, add trailing plants near the edge so they soften the side of the pot as they grow. This helps the whole container look fuller and more finished. Finally, do not ignore foliage. Flowers are lovely, but foliage helps tie everything together. A bit of green, silver, dark leaf or variegated foliage can make the flowers stand out more.
As a simple guide, think:
- Height in the middle.
- Colour through the body of the pot.
- Trailing plants over the edge.
- Foliage to make it look fuller.
It is also worth thinking about colour before you start planting. You can go bright and bold, or you can keep it calmer with two or three colours that work well together. Both can look good. What tends to look messy is buying one of everything and hoping it all gets along.
If you are planting several pots around the same patio or doorway, repeating a couple of colours can make the whole area look more planned, even if each pot is slightly different.
We stock a wide range of garden pots and planters at the nursery, so if you are starting from scratch, it is worth choosing the pot and plants together. A small pot dries out quickly and suits different planting from a large statement container.
What to plant in borders before June
Borders can be a bit intimidating because there is more space to fill, but the same basic idea applies.
You want height, colour, shape and a bit of repetition.
Taller plants usually work best towards the back of a border, or through the middle if the border can be seen from both sides. Mid-height plants help fill the main body of the border, and lower-growing plants are useful towards the front.
That does not mean everything has to be planted like a school photo, with the tall ones at the back and the short ones at the front in perfect rows. Gardens usually look better when things are allowed to feel a bit more natural. But height still matters.
If everything is the same height, the border can look flat. If everything flowers at the same time, it can look great for a few weeks and then go quiet. Try to mix plants that give interest at different points through the season.
For a Lancashire garden, it is also worth paying attention to the actual spot you are planting.
- Is it sunny most of the day?
- Does it only get morning sun?
- Is it exposed to wind?
- Does the soil stay damp?
- Is it dry under trees or near a wall?
The right plant in the wrong place will always struggle. That is not you being bad at gardening. It is just the plant telling you it would rather be somewhere else.
If you are not sure, take a few photos of the border before you visit. Photos are genuinely useful. We can usually get a better idea of the light, size and planting style you are working with if we can see the space.
You can browse our wider garden plants range online, but the choice changes through the season, so it is always worth calling in to see what is looking good at the time.
Hanging baskets: how to keep them going
Hanging baskets are one of the quickest ways to add colour around a front door, patio, wall, fence, porch or garden building.
By late May, many people are ready for that proper summer colour, and baskets are a good way to get it. You can buy ready-planted hanging baskets if you want instant impact, or you can choose plants and make your own.
The same planting idea applies here as it does with pots, but baskets need a bit more attention because they dry out faster.
A good hanging basket needs:
- Something for height or fullness in the centre.
- Flowering plants for colour.
- Trailing plants around the edges.
- Enough compost to hold moisture.
- Regular watering and feeding once it gets going.
The biggest mistake with hanging baskets is letting them dry out too often. On a warm or windy day, a basket can dry much faster than people expect. Wind is especially sneaky because the day might not feel hot, but the basket is still losing moisture.
Check baskets regularly by feeling the compost rather than guessing from the weather. If it feels dry, water it thoroughly. A quick splash is not much use if the water only wets the top and never reaches the roots.
Once the plants are growing well, feeding makes a difference. Hanging baskets are hungry because there are a lot of plants packed into a fairly small space. A regular liquid feed through the growing season helps keep them flowering.
Deadheading also helps. Removing faded flowers encourages many plants to keep producing more. If a basket starts looking a bit tired or leggy later in the season, a light trim can often encourage fresh growth.
Watering and feeding before warmer weather arrives
Watering is one of those jobs that sounds simple until the weather changes and everything starts drying out at a different speed.
Pots, containers, baskets and newly planted borders all need attention because their roots have not always settled in properly yet.
New plants need watering while they establish. Even if we have had rain, it is worth checking the soil around the plant. Rain can wet the surface without soaking down properly, especially in pots or dry borders.
For containers, water slowly and properly. If water rushes straight down the sides and out of the bottom, the compost may be too dry to absorb it well. In that case, water a little, wait, and then water again.
Feeding is also useful, but the right feed depends on what you are growing. Bedding plants and baskets often benefit from regular feeding once they are growing strongly. Shrubs and perennials may need a different approach depending on where they are planted and what compost or soil they are in.
The compost matters too. Good compost gives plants a better start, holds moisture better and supports root growth. For pots, baskets and containers, do not just scrape something old out of a forgotten tub and expect miracles. It might work, but it often does not.
We stock a practical range of compost, bark and soil improvers, including options for pots, containers, baskets, borders and vegetable growing. If you are unsure what you need, ask before you buy. It is better to match the compost to the job than buy the wrong bag and wonder why the plants are sulking.
Useful tools and products to check before summer
Before June arrives, it is worth checking the basic tools and garden products you use most often.
You do not need a shed full of gadgets. Most domestic gardeners are better off with a few useful tools that actually get used.
Worth checking now:
- A decent watering can or hose.
- Hand trowel.
- Secateurs.
- Gardening gloves.
- Plant labels if you are growing vegetables or seeds.
- Feed for baskets and containers.
- Compost for potting and topping up.
- Bark or mulch for borders.
- Replacement liners or brackets for baskets if needed.
Secateurs are especially useful at this time of year for trimming, deadheading and tidying. A blunt or awkward pair makes small jobs irritating, which usually means the job does not get done.
If you need to replace any basics, we stock a range of garden tools and sundries at the nursery, along with the compost, pots, feeds and planting products you are likely to need for May jobs.
It is also worth checking hanging basket brackets before the baskets go up. A full basket gets heavy after watering, so make sure brackets are secure and suitable for the weight.
Vegetable plants and grow-your-own jobs
May is also a good month for people growing vegetables at home.
You do not need a huge vegetable plot. Plenty can be grown in raised beds, containers, growbags and small spaces.
If you are growing your own, think about what you actually like eating. It sounds obvious, but there is not much point filling half the garden with something nobody in the house wants.
Vegetable plants are a good option if you do not want to start everything from seed. They give you a bit of a head start and can be easier if you are short on time or space.
You can browse our vegetable plants and grow-your-own range online, but as with all seasonal stock, availability changes as the season moves on.
For vegetables, compost and watering are both important. Containers and growbags can dry quickly, especially in warmer weather, so keep an eye on them as the plants grow.
Water feature and pond checks before summer
If you have a pond or water feature, May is a good time to give it a quick check before summer.
Remove any obvious debris, check pumps are working, and look at whether the planting around the feature still feels balanced. Pond and water feature areas can look lovely when they are softened with the right planting, but they can also get overgrown or tired if they are ignored for too long.
Plants around water features need to suit the conditions. Some areas may be damp, while nearby pots or raised edges can dry out quickly. Again, the exact spot matters.
If you are not sure what to choose, bring a photo with you when you visit and we can help you think through what might work around the water feature, pond edge or nearby containers.
Do not forget the practical bits
The glamorous part of May gardening is choosing colour.
The less glamorous bit is making sure the plants have what they need after you get them home.
Before June, it is worth checking:
- Have you got enough compost for the pots you want to plant?
- Do your containers have drainage holes?
- Are your hanging basket brackets secure?
- Have you got feed for baskets and bedding?
- Are newly planted shrubs and perennials being watered while they establish?
- Have you chosen plants for the actual conditions in your garden?
That last one matters most.
A sunny patio, a windy front garden, a shaded corner and a damp border are all different growing spaces. The best plant is the one that suits where it is going.
Visit Old Oak Farm Nurseries for May garden plants and advice
May is a brilliant month in the nursery because there is colour everywhere and plenty to choose from.
Whether you are planting pots, refreshing borders, choosing hanging baskets, sorting compost, picking up tools or just trying to work out what would survive in that awkward spot by the fence, call in and have a look around.
Old Oak Farm Nurseries is based on Bells Lane in Hoghton, near Preston, and we welcome gardeners from across Lancashire, including Preston, Chorley, Blackburn, Leyland, Bamber Bridge, Penwortham, Walton-le-Dale, South Ribble and the surrounding areas.
Bring a few photos if you need advice. It does not have to be complicated. Sometimes seeing the space is enough to help point you towards the right plants, pots, compost or planting combination.
The garden does not need to be perfect before summer. It just needs a bit of care now, while the season is properly getting going.
Call in, have a wander, and we’ll help you get your garden ready for June and beyond.
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