Celebrate spring by giving a basket of flowers or vegetables to someone special.
California poppies growing in sunny areas on the valley floor are now in full bloom. (Photo: Jeannette Warnert)
Tasks
- Pull weeds and hoe often to minimize reseeding.
- After mulching, check to make sure your irrigation runs are watering through the mulch to the correct rooting depth. If not, increase run times.
- Use a strong stream of water to rinse aphids from rose bushes.
Pruning
- Remove dead branches from shrubs.
- Deadhead roses to encourage more blooms.
- Thin the fruit of apricot, peach, nectarine and plum trees to about 6 to 8 inches apart.
- Use trimmings in compost pile or chip and use as mulch.
Fertilizing
- Feed bedding plants with all-purpose fertilizer high in phosphorus.
- Fertilize citrus. Follow directions on the container.
Planting
- Plant summer vegetables at two-week intervals to prolong harvest.
- Perennials: Million bells (Calibrachoa), Lily-of- the-Nile (Agapanthus), alstroemeria.
- Bulbs, corms, tubers: fortnight lily (Dietes).
- Fruits and vegetables: cantaloupe, chard, chayote.
- Trees, shrubs, vines: bougainvillea, violet trumpet vine (Clytostoma).
- Annuals: verbena, lisianthus (Eustoma).
Enjoy now
- Annuals and perennials: bachelor's button (Centaurea), California Poppy (Eschscholzia), godetia (Clarkia), coreopsis.
- Bulbs, corms, tubers: iris.
- Trees, shrubs, vines: oleander (Nerium), Indian hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis indica).
- Fruits and vegetables: cherries, cucumber, grapefruit, green onions.
Things to ponder
- To water hillsides, set emitters on upper side of slope.
- Continue to monitor and destroy slugs and snails.
