What To Plant

  • If you haven't planted your summer veggies, NOW is the time to do it.  Hundreds of different varieties of vegetables are available right now.  Tomatoes, squashes, beans, cucumbers, and peppers are just a few of the many options. 

  • Petunias, begonias, impatiens, allysum, vinca, and many other spring and summer annual flowers are in abundance.  Consider taking out your winter annuals such as pansies, violas, stock, and primroses and freshening up with summer annuals. Save a bundle by shopping our 6-packs!

  • If you are wanting to grow big pumpkins, sunflowers or corn stalks for fall decorating, plant now.

  • Hummingbirds are a delightful addition to your garden and the best way to attract them is by growing nectar-rich plants that are their food sources. Tubular flowers of blue, orange, pink, purple, and red are their favorites. The best choices include abutilon, agastache, alstroemeria, bee balm, cestrum, cleome, coral bells, fuchsia, honeysuckle, lion's tail, penstemon, red-flowered perennial lobelia, salvia, and native California Fuchsia.


May Bonus: Tips For Growing Tomatoes

  • Mix Bumper Crop Soil Builder with your old or native soil before planting and then use it as a mulch afterward. Add a handful of calcium (gypsum) and a tablespoon of Mykos and Dr Earth Vegetable food in the hole when planting. Tomatoes are heavy feeders!

  • Use heavy duty tomato cages or supports and place them right after you plant the tomatoes. They grow fast and before you know it, the plant is too big to get a cage around it!

  • Tomatoes prefer deep watering approximately once a week in the ground.  This promotes a deeper and more vigorous root system.

  • Use mulch and feed tomatoes regularly according to fertilizer directions. And if you are going to spend the time growing tomatoes or any edibles, be sure to use organic fertilizers.

  • Once your tomato begins to blossom cut back a bit on the watering to encourage fruit set and flavor development. 

  • If you notice that the bottoms of your tomatoes are black and mushy, don't worry! It's not a pathogen.  Blossom End Rot is caused by inconsistent or heavy watering and calcium deficiency.  Try to cut back on watering, add calcium to your soil, or (in extreme cases) use a Blossom End Rot spray to rectify the situation. It’s not uncommon for Blossom End Rot to drop off as the season progresses so you could try waiting it out.


Plant Protection

  • Remember, never spray or fertilize a thirsty plant. Always water your plants well the day before. It’s important to avoid the heat of the day when treating and take care with your dilutions. Don’t overdose!

  • Ladybugs and praying mantis to the rescue! Control aphids, beetles, scale, and leafhoppers naturally.

  • Remember to protect your new plantings from hungry snails and slugs with pet safe Sluggo Maxx applied regularly.

  • Scale insects affect citrus as well as a slew of ornamentals. Adults look like little stationary bumps on stems and leaves. Offspring hide beneath mother’s protective shell, venturing out as the weather warms searching for a new place to colonize. Control by spraying with Master Nursery Pest Fighter Oil.

  • Prevent olive fruit set with Florel Brand Growth Regulator. Spray the olive when the tree has just reached full bloom. Olive flowers are very small, so watch closely. Full bloom usually occurs in early May. Spray the whole tree thoroughly.

  • Paint the trunks of young fruit trees. Rising temperatures can heat the surface of your fruit trees and other trees to lethally hot temperatures. It’s not unusual to see the entire south face of a young fruit tree cracked and scarred by sunburn. Applying a white wash coating to the trunk will reflect heat away from the tender tissue and protect the trees.

  • Bugs on Vegetables? Use Captain Jacks Dead Bug Brew. This is an organic pesticide containing Spinosad. Dead Bug is an effective control for many bugs but aphids need to be controlled with another method.  Dead Bug is also effective on ornamentals.

Fertilizers

  • As the soil warms in spring, microbes become active in your soil, converting organic materials and natural minerals into nutrients the plants can readily take up into their system. Boost the population of active microbes in your soil by applying Mykos, Dr Earth, or Bumper Crop brand organic fertilizers.

  • If you have hydrangeas planted in your garden and you’d like to have blue-hued flowers instead of pink here’s what you do: Add Master Nursery Hydra Blue (aluminum sulfate) in the Fall and Winter to adjust the pH in the soil. You’re too late for blue hydrangeas this year but you can help next years blooms by applying an acid fertilizer right now!

Maintenance

  • Don't let your lawn fall victim to h2o addiction.  As the weather warms, gardeners are tempted to over-water everything, including the lawn.  If you are watering your lawn (or your shrubs) every day, the likelihood of fungal diseases dramatically increases; soilborne fungi thrive in water saturated soil conditions.  Also, lawns that have never needed to "look deep" for water may burn away with the stress of summer's first heat wave.  Do your lawn a favor, make it search for water by holding off at least a day, if not two or three, between deep thorough watering.

  • Thin apple/pear and peach/nectarine/apricot/plum crops if too much fruit has set. You’ll get larger & sweeter fruit.

  • Deep root water trees and shrubs. Never depend on lawn watering over-spray to take care of trees and shrubs or they will end up with surface roots. Begin deep watering and continue monthly through the hot summer season.

  • Mulching does wonders for your garden! As well as looking good, mulching suppresses weeds and keeps roots cool. It also retains soil moisture, a very important thing in a drought year! Mulching promotes beneficial microbial activity at the soil level and encourages earthworm activity. Mulch breaks down over time and provides compost to the root zone. The end result of all this mulching is a plant that grows well, looks good, and uses less water. Materials used for mulching are usually either bark or compost. All plants can benefit from mulching, but we especially recommend it for fruit trees and roses. Before the weather warms too much more apply a 4” layer of mulch. Don’t mulch right up to the plant trunk or stem. Leave 4 to 6 inches of breathing room around the base of the plant!

  • Stake upright perennials. To support plants as they mature, install enclosed hoops or square stakes now so new foliage can grow up through the openings. Once plants are bushy, these stakes are difficult to install without damaging foliage.

  • Fruit Trees

    • Almond fertilize / irrigate

    • Apple fertilize young and mature trees / remove mummies / clean up fallen debris / set out codling moth traps / irrigate

    • Apricot fertilize young and mature trees / irrigate

    • Cherry fertilize young trees / irrigate

    • Fig fertilize / irrigate / smyrna-type fig caprification

    • Peach/Nectarine fertilize young trees / fruit thinning / irrigate

    • Pear fertilize young and mature trees / remove mummies / clean up fallen debris / set out codling moth traps / irrigate

    • Pecan fertilize / irrigate

    • Persimmon fertilize young trees / irrigate

    • Pistachio fertilize / irrigate

    • Plum/Pluot/Prune fertilize young trees / irrigate / fruit thinning

    • Quince fertilize young and mature trees / remove mummies / clean up fallen debris / set out codling moth traps / irrigate

    • Pomegranate fertilize young trees / irrigate

    • Walnut fertilize young trees / irrigate / remove and destroy fallen nuts