Spring is winding down and summer’s just around the corner. Here’s the last burst of garden chores to get done this month before serious heat sets in.

Planting Nursery Plants

Continue to plant warm-season annual flowers and vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, marigolds, and the like) as long as you have enough time for them to beat the summer heat. (However, in hot desert areas, for example, that means no later than late February.) If in doubt, give a quick call to the garden center nearest you.

• If you haven’t already, plant seeds for corn, green beans, melons, squash, cucumbers, okra, sweet potatoes and other heat-lovers.
• Keep up with watering. Even highly drought-tolerant plants can need irrigation. Water large cacti, for example, once a month and agave and yuccas every three weeks.
• Prune winter- and spring-flowering trees and shrubs once they stop blooming.
• Limit pruning of desert legume trees such as palo verde and mesquite, just removing dead or very small limbs as necessary. Heavy pruning, to stimulate new growth which will be stressed by oncoming heat, should wait until later in the summer.

admin Articles