Gardening Tips for May for Emporia, KS

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.