Our flip-floppy weather may or may not be settling down with easing into warm weather.  But our considerable rain was a wonderful start!  Chances are that the weather will continue warming up, so best to begin planting summer veggies and flowers rather than more cool-season lovers.
 
Plant Tomatoes
 Tomatoes can handle still-cool soil temperatures and cool nighttime air temperatures, so do plant varieties you find at nurseries and Tomatomania events.
 
Don’t Plant Others Quite Yet
     But, hold off on planting other warm-season lovers like beans, cucumbers, eggplants, and squashes. 
    Seedlings currently in nurseries have been rushed to market and were grown in too-hot greenhouses and can’t adapt to inconsistent air temperatures and cold soil temperatures.  At best, they’ll “sulk” for a month and never really catch up and thrive.  And that’s only if they don’t die first.
  Wait a month to plant both seeds and seedlings, when soil is warmer and air is consistently mild to warm.  Another month after that, reseed whatever didn’t come up, and they’ll all thrive together in the heat.
 
Back to Tomatoes
   This year, I’ve already planted my first set of favorite varieties, purchased as I found them in nurseries and let them acclimate near where I'd plant them for two weeks before I actually got them planted.  These were Ace, Big Rainbow, Black Krim, Celebrity, Green Zebra, Isis Candy, Paul Robeson, and Sungold. 
   I always grow Ace, Black Krim, Celebrity, Sungold for their flavor and quantity.
   I’m giving a second chance this year to Big Rainbow, Green Zebra, and Isis Candy.
    I’m trying Paul Robeson for the first time.
    Other standbys that I’ll purchase and plant when I find them - probably at Tomatomania or at San Gabriel Nursery - include Pink Brandywine, Cherokee Purple and Stupice.
   Varieties that I grew last year but weren’t thrilled about included Brandy Boy, Chocolate Stripes, Jaune Flamme, Odoriko, and Pineapple.  Maybe I’ll give them another chance this year.
     I have 6 open spots for varieties that I'll try for the first time this year, that other people rave about this time around.
   And I have another 4 spots for second plantings of Celebrity toward the end of May to carry me through the rest of the summer to at least Thanksgiving.
    I've found that planting new plants later than that is not worth it - they're too hard to keep alive and healthy through our summer heat to provide tomatoes after mid-August 
    If hornworms have plagued your tomatoes in the past, consider planting cherry tomatoes.   Their thicker skins and higher alkaloid content seem to repel the worms.   Adult hornworms are the larval form of large fast-flying, mottled gray or brown moths that will hover near tubular flowers at dusk later this summer.   As you work your soil prior to planting, destroy the pupae -- the hard, brown, two-inch long, spindle-shaped cases with a handle that are buried three to four inches underground.
 
Come Say Hi at Tomatomania at Descanso Gardens on  Sunday, April 8
   I'll be at Descanso chatting with visitors most of the day.
  My presentation on "Growing Great Roots for a Productive Tomato Season!" will start at 1pm.
 
Add Edible Flowers
   Add to your garden some edible flowers for their foliage, bloom, and flavor.  You may already grow some -- the edible portion of artichoke, broccoli, and cauliflower are all immature flowers.   Nasturtium leaves and flowers both taste peppery.   Squash and borage blossoms have a cucumbery flavor.   Some marigolds taste unpleasantly strong, but others are mild.   Be sure, however, to eat only flowers and foliage that haven't been sprayed with a pesticide not registered for food.      
 
Encourage Beneficials
     To encourage beneficial insects to populate your garden, provide them with their chosen foods and habitats.   Many weeds -- including lamb's quarters, nettle, knotweed, pigweed, and cocklebur -- as well as many cultivated annuals, perennials, and herbs are food sources for two of the most important orders of beneficials, wasps and flies.  
     Most of these plants are members of two families, the umbelliferae and the compositae.  
   Umbelliferae - such as anise, carrot, caraway, coriander, dill, fennel and parsley -- have many tiny flowers arranged in tight umbels.  (To help yourself remember their name, think of them as upside-down umbrellas.)
​​   Compositae - such as black-eyed Susan and strawflower - have a daisy-like central disc flowers surrounded by many ray petals. 
       Mustard flowers attract lacewings (for aphids) and parasitic wasps (for cabbage caterpillars and coddling moths, but they don't bother people or pets). 
 
More to Do In The Garden
     For more garden tasks to do now, check out April on my website under “Monthly Tips”.  The direct link = http://www.gardeninginla.net/april.html

    ​We do certainly seem to be having a real winter, finally, and lasting for longer than a couple of days!  Hoorah! 
     My husband always gets a kick out of my attitude toward whatever weather’s happening:  hot is wonderful for ripening tomatoes, cold is great for fruit trees’ chill hours, moderate and dry is fine for working in the garden. 
    But, now our wet drippiness is truly a gift to the garden as a whole, after all these years of drought and the driest February which should have been our wettest month. 
    So I go outdoors, stretch out my arms, turn my head up to the sky, and relish every individual drop, knowing that the garden is equally appreciative in absorbing all the moisture.
 
Coffee Grounds as Nutritional Mulch
    Two years ago, following a not-very-vigorous pea crop, I started mulching my bed with coffee grounds I’d picked up at Starbucks following some publicity about the company’s eagerness to give them away to gardeners. 
  Because coffee is acidic, I’d assumed that the grounds would be great for acid-loving plants like camellias, but not much else.  And, I figured I’d have to compost them before using them.
      But when the quantity of grounds that I could pick up went beyond my few acid-loving plants and threatened to overload the compost pile, I did some additional research.  I found that the grounds were more of a middle-of-the-road provider of a broad range of nutrients, and that they didn’t need to be composted first. They could be applied directly to the garden soil.
   This revelation made me shift into high gear, figuring I could help the entire garden with only the expense of gas to pick up the grounds a couple of times a week.  So, I found about a dozen Starbucks, Peets, and Trader Joes in a local area that I was potentially willing to drive to pick up grounds. 
    After approaching each store with my proposal, and some false starts, I established good relationships with the management and employees at three Starbucks and one Trader Joe’s.  I’d call them in the morning of any day that was convenient for me, and they’d save grounds for me to pick up later that day. 
     The first mass application went into that pea bed, turning in a two-inch layer of grounds into the top 4 inches of soil and compost.  That next year’s peas were strong and plentiful, so I knew they were benefiting from the grounds.
      Onto the rest of the garden!
     Since last Spring, all the raised vegetable beds and all the fruit trees have their two-inch layers.  The vegetable beds were done by September and have been beautifully productive all through the fall and winter.  
     We’ve just finished supplying the fruit trees, filling the space inside their watering berms a good two feet beyond their trunks with the grounds to foster nutrition to the root zones whenever the tree was watered.