Gardening Tips for May for Emporia, KS
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Midwest Region

- Mow your lawn when the grass is dry. To keep a healthy lawn, never cut more than one-third off the total grass height.
- Start cucumber, cantaloupe, summer squash, and watermelon seeds indoors.
- Sow more cool-season vegetables outside: beets, carrots, lettuce, chard, and radishes.
- Sow green beans, sweet corn, pumpkin, and melons.
- Start hardening-off tomatoes.
- Plant sweet potato slips.
- Harvest rhubarb. Pull off leaf stalks instead of cutting them.
- Protect beets from leaf miners by placing row covers over them.
- Finish pruning spring-flowering shrubs that are done blooming.
- Finish cutting back the dead branches on perennial flowers and other shrubs.
- Supply your taller plants with supports; the growing plants will hide the supports and be more stabilized.
- Remember to water your plants and lawns, especially newly panted seeds.
- Apply fertilizer to give the vegetable garden a good start.
- Control weeds before they seed!
- Begin planting warm-season annuals and summer bulbs, such as dahlias and cannas.
- Mulch around your newly-planted flowers, vegetables, shrubs, and trees to help reduce weeds and retain moisture.
- You can place houseplants outside once the nights remain above 50 degrees.
- Sow cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower indoors for fall garden transplants.
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