Well here we are well into May now, there’s plently of  jobs around the garden to keep us all busy for the month:

• Roses - Its time to tend to your roses with a good feed, which is applied now, and again in autumn.
• Watering - The weather has changed for the better here in Devon, so don’t forget to water and feed your containers, baskets and troughs of plants and shrubs, as they can dry out really quickly when the weather is warm and humid.  Remember, the best times to water your plants and shrubs is either early morning or late afternoon, when the sun is at its lowsest.  Watering at these times prevents the water heating up with the rays of the sun and burning the leaves.
• Flowering shrubs - Which are spring flowering should be cut back once the flowers have dropped or faded.
• Climbers - Early flowering clematis (montana) and Jasmin should be pruned back once the flowers have dropped.
• Hanging baskets - Its time to get the hanging baskets out and planted up with your favourite plants such as; trailing petunias, lobelia, trailing geraniums, marigolds, busy lizzies and loads of other plants to choose from at your local garden centre.  Look out for the offers!
• Alpines - Are getting more popular each year, rightly so, as they look amazing when planted in a rockery or planted as ground coverage, the choice seems to be increasing every year, whichs makes choosing very difficult as they were all showing spectactular colours in their displays.
• Long stemmed flowers - Some long stemmed flowers such as; lillies and poppies might need  supporting with banboo canes and a little string. 
• Weeding - Here in the South West we have had quite a lot of rain in the past couple of weeks.  Which is good for the plants, but also means the weeds are growing back all too quickly again. However this does mean that the soil is just right to pull them up as it is damp and easy to hoe over, excellent for weeding!