What's happening in the early May garden

Potted lettuce in May

Sunday, May 10, 2026

Everything is lush and green this time of year.  The edibles are growing quickly.   Salad fixings are in their prime with the summer edibles just getting started.  Herbs are filling out nicely.  By this time of year, we no longer need to purchase produce from the grocery store and can get fresh herbs to add to dishes that make them taste wonderful and are chock full of antioxidants.

The last few weeks have been much cooler and drier than usual.  We've had temperatures in the 60's and 70's during the day, dropping into the 40's and 50's at night and very little rain.  So the greens are doing wonderful.  I am having to water almost every week.  Heat lovers like eggplant, cucumbers, melons and squash are having a long germination period or not coming up at all.  I am moving them in their starter peat pots from the front to back of the house to keep them in full sun to help them come on up.  It's supposed to be back in the 80's next week so I'll look to plant them in the garden then.

The greens we are eating-French sorrel, dandelion greens, winter cress, plantain greens, chick weed, sweet clover, celery, Chinese Giant Leaf mustard, sprouting broccoli leaves, many varieties of lettuce, and chard.  Many are overwintered or volunteers from last year.  I also bought one 6 pack of lettuce from the store and started seeds in early March.  I like to have new lettuces and greens coming on all the time so there is always plenty for salads.

I have lots of volunteer Blue Feather lettuce, carrots, celosias, zinnias, morning glory, hummingbird vine, husk cherry and Blue Spice basil popping up all over the garden and pots.  

Herbs to add to dishes and salads-garlic chives, regular chives, oregano, thyme, horseradish, Egyptian walking onions, tarragon, sage, young garlic, rosemary, marjoram, celery, parsley.  All are perennials or self-sowers so they come back year after year.

The flowers that are blooming-irises, spiderwort, roses, marigolds, Sweet William, pansies, hellebores, coreopsis and petunias.  The herbs and veggies going to seed-yellow flowers of the sprouting broccoli, mustard, chard and cress, yellow and pink dandelion flowers, beautiful purple flowers on garden chives,  sage and lavender, and pinkish thyme flowers.  Soon, the white garlic chive flowers will be showing off.  All veggie and herb flowers are edible.  A fun way to add flavor and beauty to salads or other dishes.

The overwintering and early spring planted lettuce is just beginning to bolt so soon there will be the white, yellow and blue flowers from the different kinds of lettuce.  Several carrots are starting to bolt, too.  If not pulled, they have beautiful white flowers resembling Queen Ann's Lace, which are in the same family, that bees love.

The lilacs and peonies have already come and gone.  They and the peonies were heavy with flowers this spring.

We put in a new raised bed 4' x 8' for strawberries last spring.  We have gotten 8 quarts so far in the last week or so.  We are growing ever bearing strawberries so they will produce fruit into the summer months.  Had also started Alpine strawberries from seed last year.  I have gotten a few berries from them.  

2 years ago in the fall, we put in a bed for raspberries and blackberries.  So far, only the blackberries are blooming.  The wild blackberry bush is quickly overtaking the bed.  It has thorns.  I'll let it fruit and then move it to the edge of the woods in the sun.  The raspberries are ever bearing.  They will bear from June to frost.

I also transplanted blueberries into pots 2 years ago in the fall.  They all have little blueberries on them.  I doubt we will get many berries this year, but we will get some!  I want to add Rabbiteye or Southern high bush varieties.  These varieties do well in our hot and humid climate.  I think it is just too hot for the northern varieties for them to thrive.  If your summers are hot like ours, I'd make sure the northern varieties are getting afternoon shade.  Rabbiteye and southern high bush varieties do well in full sun in our hot and humid summers. 

I have only planted out the veggies that do okay in cool weather like amaranth, cabbage, dill, and flowers.  I did plant eggplant, eucalyptus, sweet peppers, huckleberries and a tomato into pots.  Pots warm up so much faster than the ground.  I'm waiting on it to get back to the 80's to plant out the tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, melons, and squash into the garden beds.

I divided and planted creeping thyme into empty spots around the edge of my flower beds.  Thyme deters voles and it looks really pretty edging the beds.

It is a good idea to wait 10 days after planting new plants before you give them much fertilizer.  I'll add a diluted liquid fertilizer to all when they have their first set of true leaves.  I am using Neptune kelp and fish liquid fertilizer for spring feeding this year.  Kelp really stimulates growth so I use it only in the spring.  Also, when I transplant, I add char, worm castings and starting fertilizer to each planting hole for sustained nutrition.

It's okay to just be getting started in the edible garden with the summer lovers.  You can plant a summer garden into June and still have a nice harvest.

Volunteer Red Malabar spinach and Chinese Multicolor amaranth

I have been harvesting the greens by taking only the outer leaves so that the plants will continue to grow.  By harvesting, it stimulates the plant to grow even more leaves.  If you have extra greens, besides lettuce, you can blanch and freeze them.  I still have plenty left in the freezer.  Preservation garden

I am doing good right now on lettuce, but will need to start transplanting some of the volunteers coming up in the yard into pots to keep the harvest going.  If you don't have volunteers, it is a good idea to sow lettuce seeds now.  If you start seeds every 2-3 weeks, it keeps you in lettuce all the way until winter.  This time of year, start the heat tolerant varieties.   

I have also moved to using greens that stay sweet during the dog days of summer to supplement lettuce.  The greens I have found so far that are great lettuce and spinach substitutes in salads are Red Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach, Perpetual Spinach chard, Chinese Multicolored amaranth, all colors of orach, Chinese Hilton cabbage (doubles as a great wrap, too), and sprouting broccoli.  Keep salads going all summer long. 

I overwintered New Zealand and Red Malabar spinach in the house.  I put it outside a month ago.  It is pretty good but will really pop when it warms up.  We use their leaves just like spinach in salads.  They are heat lovers with leaves that stay sweet all summer; a great spinach substitute.