Water Wise Garden

Gardening with Limited Water

Learn the best ways to care for your plants during this drought. Either select the link from the top navigation above or click here for links to helpful information about using less water in your garden.

March in the Garden

Spring in Kew Gardens, London

Checklist 

• Flush irrigation systems. Check sprinklers and drippers; repair as needed.

• Keep adding water to pond plants to encourage early bloom.  

• Feed azaleas and camellias at end of bloom.   

• Fertilize indoor plants as needed.  

• Fertilize lawn, annuals, vegetables, and citrus trees as spring growth starts. 

• Spray peach, apricot, plum, and nectarine trees to controls hot hole fungus and brown rot.

• Check roses for black spot and rust. Prevent these diseases by watering early in the day, and avoiding over head watering.

• Look for aphids on roses. Blast them with a strong stream of water.

• Get a good start on early spring weeding.  

• Prune spring flowering shrubs and trees after bloom. Be careful not to remove second and third year growth from shrubs such as lilac as this is where next year’s flowers will appear.

• Set out tomato plants only when night temperatures reach 50 degrees.

Tulips & Crocus

• Plant bulbs, rhizomes, corms, and tubers for calla, canna, liatrus, and dahlias.

Tomatoes

Vegetables & Herbs

• Start seeds in green house or cold frame for lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, beets, peppers, eggplant, cucumber, Celery, corn, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, Kohlrabi, peas, potato eyes, radishes, and summer squash.

• Transplant seedlings or purchased plants of lettuce, tomatoes, and chard.

• Harvest lettuce, spinach, peas, last of Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and carrots

• Refer to vegetable planting guide for best timing of spring cold tolerant vegetable seeds and transplants.

Meyer Lemon

Trees & Shrubs

• Plant citrus trees