Garden Projects

760.436.3244   Fax: 760.436.8612     Email: sunshinegardens2@aol.com
Hours:    Monday - Saturday - 7 am to 5 pm  
Sunday - 9 am to 4 pm   Closed on all major holidays.

for May

It's really time to set out those summer herbs and vegetables! As the soil warms up, you can start planting favorites like peppers, corn, and tomatoes. You can also continue planting roses, trees, berries, etc. 

Start planting your summer vegetable garden and prepare the soil. 

It's been a dry winter, so be sure that you're irrigating sufficiently. Bait for snails and if you're obsessed, take a flashlight and go "hunting" at night when snails are active.

Maintenance

Check your irrigation system for leaks and clogs. Repair as needed.

Water early in the morning to be sure your plants get most of the water.

Cut back water to native plants.

Deadhead faded flowers.

Continue applying snail and slug bait.

Pull emerging weeds or spray with Roundup now to avoid lots of work later.

If gophers are a problem, try traps or an owl box! One owl eats 1000 rodents each year.

Prune camellias, azaleas, trees and shrubs that have finished blooming. (Don't prune fruit trees!)

Pinch tips of perennials and annuals to encourage bushy growth.

Spray for aphids, scale, and whitefly.

Plant Now

Plant trees, shrubs, vines, citrus, avocados, fruit trees.

Plant drought-resistant plants. Keep them watered for the first year until they're established.

Plant perennials.

Plant roses, trees, shrubs.

Plant gladiolas, tuberous begonias, canna, dahlias, tuberose. 

Sow seeds or plant seedlings of summer vegetables and flowers. 

Plant heirloom tomatoes - we have at least 10 varieties!

Plant summer color - cosmos, marigolds, zinnias, asters, impatiens, lisianthus, lobelia, petunia, alyssum, verbena.

Water newly planted items.

Buy seeds for summer flowers and vegetables to start indoors now.

Fertilize

Fertilize groundcovers and roses, irises, lawns.

Feed camellias when they finish blooming.

Fertilize citrus, fuchsias, avocados, berries and grapes.

All gardeners live in beautiful places because they make them so. Joseph Joubert
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