The worms have spent some time thinking of tasks in the garden for May this week. There’s quite a few to dos, like starting to harden off your tender young plants. Follow our blog to get more daily gardening cartoons, ideas, tasks and tips.

The cartoon headline says, “Harden off tender plants by putting them out doors in the morning, bringing in at night ….” The image is of two worms looking at a load of young tender plants in a row. One of the worms says o the other, “Avoid wind, midday sun, frosts, slugs …” The other work says, “ If it ws up to me I’d leave them indoors”

[elementor-template id=”1680″]

The wrigglers are amateur gardeners, for advice from the experts on how to toughen up your plants for the great outdoors, try the RHS – they know what they’re talking about!

RHS link on hardening off tender young plants

Hardening off tender plants

Plants raised indoors or in a greenhouse need to be acclimatised to cooler temperatures, lower humidity and increased air movement for about two to three weeks before they are planted outdoors. This ‘toughening up’ process is known as hardening off.

The Wrigglers have joined the #putpollinators first Campaign

Wild flower meadows flower for longer due to the diverse range of plants in them. That’s more flowers for you, and more food for the bees and insects. Plant one and join the Gardener’s World Put Pollinators First campaign – raising awareness of the decline of our pollinators @GWmagazine

Click to see our ‘Put Pollinators First’ page

Gardener’s world launched its #putpollinatorsfirst campaign, as part of their 30th Anniversary celebrations of BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine. See what you can do to play your part:

Join in the Gardener’s World team and pledge here

With a panel of pollinator experts, committed to helping bees and other pollinating insects to thrive, Dr Trevor Dines says, ” Since the 1930’s, over 97 percent of our wildflower meadows have been destroyed. That’s 7.5 million acres, gone. Now you can understand why our pollinators are in such trouble.”

There are 3 ideas:

Sow some pollinator meadow seeds

Create habitats for butterflies, moths and caterpillars

Make a cornfield nectar bar

By making a meadow, even on a small scale, we can provide a banquet for pollinators that’ll help them to thrive.

Here are some seed suppliers and links:

Dobies

Thomson and Morgan – how to sow wildflower seeds

RHS – How to grow a mini wild flower meadow