Order seeds for cool season vegetables like broccoli, carrots, kale, and radishes.
Spruce up doorstep or patio containers with water-wise succulents and trailing sedums.
Maintenance
Check container plants daily.
As temperatures rise, adjust your automatic irrigation system to water more often if allowed by your water district.
Pinch the top pair of chrysanthemum shoots no longer than 5 inches to keep plants healthy.
Cut canna stems to the ground as they finish flowering. New stems will continue to appear.
Dig and divide overcrowded bulbs when the foliage dies off.
Deadhead daylilies, roses, and other bloomers as they finish flowering.
Fertilize roses.
Cut back lavender after flowering to promote a second bloom.
Prune wisteria to increase flowering next spring. Cut each shoot back to within 6 inches of main branches.
Trim faded crape myrtle flowers for more fall bloom.
Harvest vegetables promptly to encourage continued production.
Cut spent berry canes to the ground; tie up and fertilize new canes.
Monitor and deeply irrigate fruit and ornamental trees every other week to ensure root zone is constantly moist (soil should be moist to a depth of two feet).
Prune deciduous fruit trees as soon as they are done producing to help keep trees smaller and fruit within arms’ reach.
Pest and disease control
Pick up dropped fruit to prevent brown rot and reduce driedfruit beetles.
Control codling moth to protect apple and pear fruit from this worm.
