In the garden · May
Gardening by the moon in May May
May is the month of the big plantings. Lunar tradition gives the leading role to the descending moon: it’s the one that welcomes the planting out of tomatoes, courgettes and aubergines, once the last frosts are past. In the ascending moon you sow beans, squash and sweetcorn in place, and keep radishes and lettuces going in small batches. The garden changes scale in a few weeks.
The essentials
- To sow
- in place: beans, squash, sweetcorn; in batches: radishes, lettuces, carrots
- To prune, to plant
- plant out tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines, basil after the last frosts
- To harvest
- radishes, lettuces, peas, first strawberries
- Watchword
- transplant
The May kitchen garden by lunar tradition
The descending moon becomes the great window of the month: the sap said to flow back toward the roots makes it, for tradition, the moment for transplanting. Tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines, basil: everything that has grown in the warm since winter joins the open ground, once the last cold snaps are over. Tradition reads a cleaner establishment in it, the plant tending to its roots before its leaves.
The ascending moon keeps the sowings: beans and squash sown straight into warmed soil, sweetcorn, and the batches of radishes, lettuces and carrots you restart every two or three weeks to spread the harvests. It’s also in the ascending moon that tradition picks strawberries and peas, the sap up high.
Tomatoes, beans, strawberries: the crops of the month
The bean is the star of the fruit days: sown in clusters in already-warm soil, it germinates in a week and forgives almost anything. The tomato, planted out on a fruit day and in the descending moon if you want to follow the full grid, mostly wants its stake set on the day itself: putting it in later means wounding the roots.
Lettuces and radishes carry on through leaf days and root days, in small amounts. Tradition invites you to sow little and often rather than a lot at once: the lunar calendar, with its windows returning at each lunation, naturally fits this rhythm of batches.
The gesture of the month: planting the tomato deep
When you plant out a tomato, bury the stem up to the first true leaves, even if it looks brutal: all along the buried section the tomato grows new roots, and the plant gains in anchorage as much as in resistance to drought. Dig deep, water the bottom of the hole generously, then plant.
In a pot the gesture holds too: choose a container at least thirty centimeters deep and bury the stem the same way. A well-planted balcony tomato gives more than a garden plant put in any old how.
What the trials say
Agronomic trials have never reliably reproduced the effects tradition lends to the lunar phases on establishment or yield. What May’s calendar offers you that is tangible is a sequencing: transplanting, sowing, batches, each thing in its window, and the garden moves forward without a scramble.
The lunations of May (exact dates)
Calculated from the ephemeris, in London time, and rechecked every night. Each lunation has its own detailed page.
Frequently asked questions
- What are the “ice saints”?
- A country tradition: three days in mid-spring said to carry the last frosts, after which you put out the tender plants. The exact date matters less than the idea: as long as cold nights remain possible in your region, the tomatoes wait. Local weather decides better than the saying.
- Should you plant out on an ascending or descending moon?
- On the descending moon, says tradition: the sap is said to flow back toward the roots and favor establishment. If the window doesn’t fit your weather or your weekend, plant out anyway: a seedling set in mild conditions and well watered beats one waiting for the perfect moon.