Cynthia Stringham: Hey, it's Cynthia with "Modern Gardener" here.

And we are excited to show you the progression of my garden every month here in Utah.

May is a crazy month in Utah.

If you are familiar with Utah weather patterns, it is like hot and cold, hot and cold, all May.

And so you have to cover your plants or decide if you're gonna plant or not, and it changes all the time.

Well, last week I planted because I was so sick of waiting, and of course there was a cold snap, and of course I was too lazy to cover things.

So it is what it is, and I'm gonna show you my faults and the things that are being successful here in May.

(chickens squawking) It's right there, do you see it?

- [Speaker] What is it?

- [Cynthia] A swallowtail.

- [Speaker] Oh.

- I haven't seen them yet.

Oh, look how gorgeous it is.

Yeah, I can't see if it's a boy or a girl.

Oh, here is a great example of what happens in May.

I thought it was time to plant salvia.

I've waited and waited to put it in the ground and I finally did last week, just to have two days later a nice cold temped night that hit this little area hard.

As you can see, there's frost damage.

And although a lot of the plants are doing well around here, this plant will still survive but it may not look as good as what the other plants or other salvias that are just right next to it.

Look at the difference in the color of this not getting struck by cold versus that getting struck by cold.

And here's the backyard.

Yeah, not as green and lush as the front yard but there is a lot happening here.

These are all my summer crops, all my summer vegetables, and some summer flowers that I wanna use for cut gardening, along with all my tea herbs.

Just give it a couple of months and you will see this place explode.

Some plants I planted a little early using some covers to keep them nice and warm, for example, my tomatoes.

I know, I'm not supposed to plant until after Mother's Day.

But I actually planted these tomatoes in April knowing that if I used some protection I could get them growing faster.

Thanks so much again for watching, and make sure you check out next month's episode by hitting that subscribe button.