Greetings, Lakeway gardeners! The month of May can be an exuberant (and sometimes an exhausting) time in Lakeway. There is just so much to see and do in the garden! Roses are blooming, birds are singing and pollinators are buzzing with all the flowering excitement in our gardens. The humidity and severe storm chances are starting to rise, so an early morning garden work habit is key to staying cool. And remember to get out there and start weeding before they take over and make your yard work much, much harder!

Thanks so much to everyone who attended our first ever Lakeway Garden Club Open House celebrating Earth Day on April 22nd at the Lake Travis Community Library. We had a great turnout and a fantastic time chatting about plants. It was wonderful to meet lots of local garden enthusiasts and Lakeway Garden Club members. We are planning to have many more get togethers this year and will keep everyone posted through our website, newsletters and social media (follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter). LGC members will receive a separate newsletter this month with more details regarding our upcoming members only meetings and events.

If you haven’t already done so and would like to attend our upcoming member meetings, join us and become a member of the Lakeway Garden Club. Our goal is to build a local community of fellow garden enthusiasts to share tips and help each other’s gardening endeavors. It is free and open to all. Let us know if you would like to participate.

Below in this newsletter we have a bounty of garden tips for your May gardening to-do list. You can also visit the Lakeway Garden Club for more springtime garden tips and tricks. Our Events Calendar showcases many local and online classes and special events happening this spring. And as always, happy gardening!

May Garden Tips

Flowers to Plant

• Aster, Flowering Balsam, Begonia, Celosia, Cleome, Coleus, Coreopsis, Cosmos, Dusty Miller, Gomphrena, Hamelia, Impatiens, Jacobinia, Lantana, Marigold, Mexican Heather, Nicotiana, Pentas, Periwinkle, Petunias, Purslane, Saliva, Verbena, Zinnias

Seeds to Sow

• Beans – pole, snap, lima
• Corn
• Edamame
• Greens – warm season
• Okra
• Peas – southern
• Pumpkins
• Squash – summer, winter
• Watermelon

Things to Transplant

• Cantaloupe
• Cucumbers
• Eggplants
• Peppers
• Sweet Potatoes
• Tomatoes

May Garden To-Dos

Spray the landscape with seaweed and fertilize

Continue spraying entire landscape with seaweed solution to strengthen plants and help them deal with the heat of the summer. Regularity is important; spray at least once a month, but no more than once a week. Spray on and under the leaves, early morning or late evening (never in the middle of the day). Fertilize trees and blooming shrubs once their flowers have faded.

Last chance to top dress

To replenish nutrients in the soil, spread compost no more than a half inch over the lawn, and a half inch to one inch in flower beds and around shrubs and trees. Besides providing nutrients, this also helps soil to retain moisture. Water afterwards to settle in the compost and prevent potential burning in the heat, especially on the lawn.
Do not top-dress when temperatures are above 85-90 degrees.

Apply a soil activator

If you find that water runs off the soil and doesn’t soak in easily, apply a soil activator to help improve soil permeability. During this now can cut down on watering costs during the hotter months.

Zen and the art of weeding and other maintenance

Keep up with weeding and don’t allow those darn seeds to spread! Since most weeds are annuals, they will go dormant in the coming heat and give you a break. Prune the last of the spring blooming trees and shrubs after blooms fade. Always deadhead flowers to encourage more blooms to follow.

Beat the heat and plant now

Get the last of your plants in the ground right in the very beginning of May so roots can become established before the real heat arrives. Switch out container plants to warm season annuals that can take the Texas heat.

Learn to water properly

The same variety of plant can potentially have very different water needs depending on the culture.  The age and type of the plant, quality of the soil medium, wind speed, temperature, and whether the plant is in the ground or in a container are all factors that affect how much water a plant will need. Use the cycle-and-soak method on your lawn. Water other plants deeply and as infrequently as you can to encourage deep roots in preparation for stricter water restrictions.

Cover bare soil with mulch or cover crops

Apply a compost layer and use three inches of mulch on bare soil to get the benefits of weed suppression, moisture retention, and cooler soil.  Plant summer cover crops like cow peas or vetch in unused veggie beds.

Time for heat loving veggies

If you’ve planted potatoes, harvest a few new potatoes from the perimeter of the potato plant by carefully pulling back the soil without disturbing the plant. Watch for squash vine borer eggs at the base of stems. Harvest onions when the tops fall over, then let them dry for a week before storing. Plant heat-loving plants like sweet potatoes, Malabar spinach, okra, and southern peas. Eggplant and pepper transplants can still be planted early this month. Install drip irrigation systems in ornamental and vegetable beds in preparation for summer.

Make lawn work easy

Mow as needed and leave clippings on the lawn to maintain soil organic matter. No grass clipping bagging please!

Watch for chinch bugs and other pests

If your St. Augustine lawn has developed dead patches in full sun areas, check the lawn for chinch bugs by examining the green areas next to the patches.  Chinch bugs are only about 1/6” long, mostly black, (young ones can be reddish-tan) with a white marking across their back. They do not fly or jump up when you walk across.  Be sure to get a positive ID before treatment. Hornworms will be more prevalent, especially in the vegetable garden. Pick them off plants by hand (or glove) when you see them and feed them to the birds. Blackspot and other fungal diseases will be prevalent due to the rain. Apply fungicides according to label directions between periods of rain. Monitor vegetable garden for squash vine borers, cabbage loopers, corn earworms, and beetles. It is always best to pick these off by hand. Sometimes the bugs will win. Rather than spraying, consider bagging and destroying any infested plants if they are nearing the end of their harvesting season. It can be much easier this way!

Garden Tips courtesy of The Natural Gardener and Texas AgriLife Extension.

Interested in Garden Outreach?

If you are a Lakeway Garden Club member and would like to help out by volunteering in local gardens, please let us know of your interest. We are forming a team for Garden Outreach Projects since we often have requests from local community groups and schools for gardening advice, expertise and manual labor. If you are interested in volunteering, please let us know.