Wonderfully Still-Mild Spring Weather

First Sungold tomatoes and 3 varieties of bush beans.

Red amaryllis

Pinky golden beige alstroemeria.

Four different colors of epiphyllum.

Yellow daylily.

Last sweet peas, with telltale hairy pods.

Black sweet peppers.

Propagating pink brugsmania, Rosebud geranium and a Peter's Honey fig tree.

Propagating my neighbor's loquat.

Propagating lots of succulents. The pieces were left over when I repotted all of my succulents a year ago - my first big COVID project that I'd been putting off but now had the time!

Aren’t we lucky -- we’re still experiencing warm but mild spring weather!  We’ve made it through May with nary a hot day over 90 degrees, much less our week of over 100-degrees that has plagued us in the past.  But, those over-90 degree days are forecast for this coming week, so we’ll see what’s to come later in the month.  As long as we continue to have this glorious spring weather with just enough heat to keep the tomatoes happily growing and sweetly ripening their fruits, I’m in heaven!
 
Continue Sowing and Transplanting

• In the hopes of continuing nice weather for at least a couple of weeks, it’s worth continuing to sow more seeds and transplant more seedlings of veggies and flowers so they’ll get settled in nicely before getting blasted with the coming summer heat.
• Do make a point of choosing heat-tolerant and bolt-resistant vegetable varieties to assure that you truly do get a crop to enjoy before they move on to setting seed.
• Choose transplants that aren't rootbound.  They'll have to spend too much effort trying to reach out into the soil to get established, and may not even manage it before the heat hits.
• Gently loosen the rootballs of transplants before planting them so roots can quickly reach out into surrounding soil to establish themselves and access moisture and fertilizer.
• Transplant them closely enough so that the leaves of the mature plants will shade the soil between the plants. This will keep plant roots cooler, and there's less evaporation, so you'll have to water less.
• Provide transplants with light shade for at least a week, and keep them evenly moist so the roots can reestablish themselves and begin putting out new growth.

 
Corn

• If you’re a beginning gardener and have a block of garden space of at least 4 feet by 4 feet, I urge you to grow corn, just for the experience.  You probably won’t get a great crop because the ears won’t completely fill out due to incomplete pollination and fertilization, and it’ll take a long time to get one or two ears per stalk.  The process just takes up too much garden space for too long to get too little to eat. But then you’ll know the process and consequently appreciate even more buying your corn at the farmers market!
• Sow seed no later than this month.  If sown later, they'll likely develop big grey and black puffy fungus in place of kernels when harvested in the fall.  However, like regular mushrooms (also a fungus), they make a tasty addition to omelettes.  Your choice to appreciate it or not!

 
Get More Tomato Fruits

• When tomato blossoms appear, you can help spread the sticky pollen easily by flicking each bloom during the driest part of the day. Big plants can be taken care of with one or two shakes while holding onto their cages or stakes.
• I accomplish this simply every time I water each plant by tucking more of the branches under the rungs of the cages.  Just moving all this foliage every other day or so makes the magic happen as new blossoms appear.
• When blossoms appear, fertilize your plants so they have the nutrition to support all the foliage, keep producing blossoms, setting fruit, and ripening the fruit.  Big fruits may take a good 30-45 days to mature.
• If your garden gets good air circulation, allow foliage to grow as it will – more foliage means more photosynthesis for more energy, and shade for developing fruit.
• If your garden doesn’t get much air circulation, or gets a lot of air moisture like toward the coast, you may want to do some pruning of interior growth so diseases don’t get a foothold in the crowded foliage.

Root Cuttings of Ornamentals

• Now’s a great time to root cuttings of firm green and woody branches, including azalea, chrysanthemum, carnation, fuchsia, geranium, hydrangea, loquat and succulents.
• Choose growth that is somewhat woody and not still bright green and pliable.
• Cut a five- or six- inch piece, and strip off all of the leaves but the tiny young top growth and one or two well-developed more mature leaves.
• Place the cutting in light, sandy soil or planting mix up to the bottom leaf.
• Sprinkle the foliage and thoroughly wet the soil mixture.
• Provide filtered light in a sheltered location and keep the soil mix moist but not soggy until the rootings are well-established and new foliage appears in about a month.
• Gently tug on the rooted seedling, and when it gives resistance, gently remove the potting mix to see whether it has several new white roots.
• If it does, transplant it to its permanent home.
• If it doesn’t, repot it and water it in for further growth and checking in another month.

 
For more garden tasks, see June.