The New England Gardener’s May To-Do List (Zone 6a)

Your complete month-by-month guide for my fellow 6a garden friends.

If April is the month of hope around here, with seeds sprouting under grow lights, seed packets being organized all over the coffee table, then May is the month where everything actually happens! May is the busiest month in a New England garden, full stop!

The risk of frost drops off for most of us in zone 6a by mid-month (but I obsess over the 14-day weather forecast!), the soil is warming up, and suddenly there’s no more waiting!

This month, I prepped all of my raised beds, added new (or old used in new ways), moved seedlings outside to my front porch to harden off, made a trip to the farm for my veggie starts, and started planting. It was alllllooott but also the best kind of a lot.

Here’s a look at everything I tackled this May, plus a checklist you can use for your own garden.

Bed Prep & Infrastructure

Before anything goes into the ground, the beds need to be ready. I spent time in April adding fresh soil and compost(this Coast of Maine compost is my go-to) to all the beds in the vegetable section of my garden, just topping them off and working it in a bit. After the winter, the beds always need a refresh (the heavy snow packs down the soil). Now it’s time to finish that job for the larger cut flower section of the garden.

I added three new raised beds to the cut flower section this year. One is a brand-new bed I built along the front of the garden fence, spanning what used to be a gate I never really used anymore (the bunnies had claimed it as their personal entrance, so I strung chicken wire across the opening and reclaimed the space).

The other two replaced a pair of wooden beds that had finally reached the end of their life. Rather than toss the old lumber, I salvaged enough good pieces to build a couple of replacement beds over in the veggie section. More growing space is always the right answer in May, and I’m already excited about what those extra beds will hold.

This year, I’m trying something new with my metal cucumber trellises. They’re designed to lean at an angle using the two support arms, and I’ve also used them in a tent configuration in the past, but this year I stood them straight up behind the beds and used the arms to anchor them in place. I’ll be planting cucumber seeds at the back of the beds and letting them climb up and over. We’ll see how it goes!

I also relocated two standing raised beds I had on my backyard patio over to the main garden. They’ve been underutilized back there, and they’re much better positioned now, where they’ll get more sun. Those went straight to work as homes for salad greens and broccoli.

It really is amazing to see how fast your garden can grow with some sunny weather and a little rain! This is the progression from the beginning of May until just yesterday.

Nothing beats the taste of fresh lettuce and arugula from the garden. I also think that salad greens stay cleaner in standing beds. When I grew lettuce on the ground, it took forever to clean it off.

In these beds, I also planted broccoli, bok choy, spinach, onions, and calendula.

By May, all of my indoor seedlings were looking really good: healthy, sturdy, ready to meet the world. But they’ve spent their whole lives under grow lights, so you can’t just toss them outside and wish them luck.

Hardening off is the process of gradually acclimating seedlings to outdoor conditions: sun, wind, and temperature swings, before you plant them out. I moved the entire rack and all of the trays outside onto my front porch. We’d been having warm weather with no frost in the forecast, so the timing was right.

This way, I can regulate their sun exposure and let them become accustomed to the real world and toughen up a bit. We did have a couple of cold nights, and I moved the plants indoors onto my dining table.

All of these flower seedlings will be planted out over Memorial Day weekend. The weather looks like it will be in the 60°s which is perfect gardening weather for this girl!

May Veggie Planting

A quick trip to the farm down the street to pick up my veggie starts: tomatoes, peppers, and some new herbs got things rolling for this garden season. I also stopped at a couple of other local spots to grab a few more pepper plant varieties and herbs.

This year, I made a deliberate change with my tomatoes: I moved them into a raised bed. I’ve been growing tomatoes in the ground for years, and I keep getting early blight. Raised beds improve drainage and airflow, and because the soil is fresh, there’s less chance of soilborne disease lingering from a previous season. I’m hopeful this makes a real difference.

In all of the raised beds in this back section of the garden, I mix vegetables, herbs, and flowers together. It looks beautiful, but it’s not just about aesthetics. Companion planting has real benefits, from attracting pollinators to confusing pests and improving soil health. You can read more about this pretty & productive method of gardening here.

So along with the 4 tomato plants that I have in my tomato ladders (I’ve had these for almost 20 years, they are the best!), I have also planted everleaf tower basil, marigolds, calendula, beans, and carrots.

In the 2 salvaged garden beds, I’ve planted 4 types of cucumbers across the back, 4 pepper plants, towering basil, nasturtiums, chamomile seeds, green onion plants, and popped in an artichoke plant in one (very cool plant to grow!)

In The Flower Garden

Early May is prime time for getting your winter-sown flowers in the ground. I had been wintersowing since January, and by the beginning of the month, the seedlings were plenty big enough to plant out: poppies, larkspur, bachelor’s buttons, nigella, and more. These cool-season flowers love going in while the soil is still on the cooler side.

I also planted out my cold-hardy annuals and perennial seedlings that had been growing under the lights since February. Getting the cut flower garden planted is honestly one of my favorite things to do all year. There’s something about putting in all those little starts and imagining the bouquets to come.

The bulk of my cut flower garden will go in this weekend. It’s a huge undertaking!

In the corners of most of the veggie beds, I’ve tucked in bright pansies. May gardens can feel a little bare while everything is getting established, and those little pops of color make such a difference, especially when you’re looking out the window waiting for everything else to catch up!

Herbs

What looks the best right now in May? It has to be my herb garden! They were the first plants to come back to life after all the snow had melted away. This year, I added lemon balm in a big terracotta pot-it’s in the mint family, so I would advise against planting it directly into your garden.

Most of my herbs are perennial. Sometimes in April, I can’t tell if a plant is still dormant or dead, but by May, I know! I had to pull a sage and lavender that were goners.

I planted out a few new herbs I picked up & divided my oregano to use in more of the raised beds. Herbs are one of those things I always want more of. You use them constantly once they’re growing & bundled up to dry and use in the winter.

Basil went in later in the month once the nights were reliably warm, but the hardier herbs like thyme, oregano, and lavender went in earlier in May.

May In The Garden-Final Thoughts

May is a lot! There’s no getting around it. But it’s also the month where the garden actually comes to life, and there’s nothing quite like standing back at the end of a long planting day and seeing everything in the ground.

A few things I learned or was reminded of this May: raised beds are worth every bit of the effort to build them, moving your whole seedling rack outside at once is a game-changer for hardening off, and sometimes the best garden improvements are just repositioning what you already have.

I’ll be back next month with the June checklist, which will include planting my cut flower garden and keeping up with what you’ve planted this month. But first, enjoy a little of the magic that is a freshly planted May garden.

xo, Jennifer