This year, garden tasks in May require a different timeline

Gardens are all late this year. With our long, cool winter and spring, May plants are behaving more like April plants. Perennials are blooming, sweet peas and native wildflowers are still flowering.

In many places, the soil is just now warming enough to plant summer vegetables.

It's a great reminder that we have zero control over the weather. We gardeners simply have to go with the flow.

• Once the night temperatures are reliably above 50 degrees all night, it's safe to plant summer vegetable seedlings.

• What to plant now: tomato, cucumber, squash (winter and summer), pumpkins, melon, okra, basil, marigolds, eggplant, carrots, radishes, beans, tomatillo, peppers, cilantro.

• Are you new to vegetable gardening? Or have you had trouble starting vegetable seeds in the past? Enroll in my Easy Seed Starting Online Course to learn the best, easiest and most successful way to start seeds. Sign up at waterwisegardener.com/seed-starting-workshop.

• If you shop for seedlings, buy the smallest seedlings you can find. Avoid large seedlings and never buy a mature plant especially ones with flowers on them. Younger plants will establish better, grow into larger plants and produce far more.

• What's the best way to grow vegetables here? Since our soils don't have enough organic matter to support vegetables, we plant instead into giant pots, half whiskey barrels, free-standing raised beds and on-the-ground raised beds.

• Building and planting your first on-the-ground raised beds? Here's how: tinyurl.com/buildraisedbeds and tinyurl.com/plantraisedbeds.

• Whether you grow in huge pots, whiskey barrels or raised beds, fill the entire space — top to bottom — with a uniform mixture. Don't be tempted to fill up space with logs, branches, leaves, plastic bottles, gravel or anything else. When materials are layered, the layers prevent soil from draining so your plants literally drown. It's a matter of physics.

• Fill on-the-ground raised beds with a topsoil mix — not with potting soil, not with planting mix, nor with any of the bagged raised bed mixes. Use a topsoil that is at least 40 percent organic matter (compost). Add in a generous dose of worm castings and organic granular vegetable fertilizer. Mix into the top few inches using a hand trowel; do not rototill.

• Fill pots, freestanding raised beds and whiskey barrels with good-quality potting mix. Do not use planting mix or "dirt," and don't cheap out on the potting mix. Your plants only grow as well as the quality of the mix they are planted in.

• Revitalize last year's raised beds and planting containers by layering on compost, worm castings and organic vegetable fertilizer. Mix in to the top few inches using a hand trowel; do not rototill.

• Irrigate raised beds with Netafim Techline EZ inline dripline, with emitters spaced every 6 inches along the lines. Before you plant, lay out the irrigation in a grid of straight lines, 6 to 8 inches apart.

• At planting time, give your seedlings plenty of space. All seedlings start out small, then tomato plants grow 3 to 6 feet wide. Pepper and eggplant plants grow 2 feet wide or more. Pumpkin and melon plants sprawl over 30 square feet easily, while zucchini plants grow 3 feet across. If you crowd your plants, you’ll soon have a giant overgrown jungle. These conditions encourage molds, mildew and other problems.

• Move tomato, pepper, eggplant, tomatillo and potato plants to a new spot in the garden. All are vulnerable to infection by the same set of microscopic pathogens that live in the soil. Alternate with plants in the cucumber family, annual flowers, herbs, okra, beans or anything else that is not in the tomato family.

How much room do your plants need?

• A 15-gallon nursery can or a half whiskey barrel accommodates one tomato plant, or two eggplants, or three basil plants, or four cucumber plants, or two pepper plants.

• A 5-gallon nursery can is big enough for two eggplants, two basil plants or two pepper plants.

• A 5-gallon bucket with holes drilled in the bottom can support one tomato or two eggplants or three basil, or two pepper plants.

• To prune or not to prune tomato plants? Experts say there's no reason to — and many reasons not to. Contrary to legend, pruning does not increase production (Why would it? Leaves power the plant, so when you remove leaves, you limit fruiting power). Overpruning leaves fruits exposed to sunscald. Do remove branches selectively to increase airflow and reduce mildew. Use your fingers to break off branches. Wash your hands between plants so you don't spread diseases from one to the next.

Summer and fall fruits are developing now: stone fruits, apples, pears, figs, pomegranates, pineapple guava, persimmon, and so much more. It's so much fun to watch them grow!

• As exciting as it is to see lots of fruits on the branches, too many translate to tiny fruits or broken branches. Thin fruits by the time they reach marble size. Your goal is just one fruit every 5 or 6 inches along the length of the branch.

• Water stone fruits, apples and pears deeply and regularly throughout the growing season. Remember to fertilize them with organic, granular, all-purpose fruit tree fertilizer. Follow label directions.

• Water figs, pomegranate and pineapple guava only once every few weeks — deeply each time. They don't need fertilizer.

• Peach leaf curl is on nearly every peach and nectarine tree, thanks to the long, wet winter and spring. Those curled and disfigured leaves are caused by a fungus that thrives in humidity. There's no treatment for it now. Leave the ugly leaves alone; they still photosynthesize to make energy for the trees and power fruit development. Make a note on your calendar to spray the trees next December/January/February when they are dormant. Watch this space for spraying how-to.

• Pick fruits as they ripen — before critters get them. Pick up fallen fruits and set traps for rats.

• Continue watering and fertilizing citrus and avocado. Water under the entire canopy to wet surface roots, and water a long time to wet deep roots.

• Disfigured citrus leaves are likely citrus leaf miner. There's nothing to be done about it. The leaves look ugly, but fruiting isn't affected. DO NOT cut off the ugly leaves. That stimulates the tree to grow new leaves, and new leaves are the favorite habitat of leaf miners, so the problem would only get worse.

• Bananas and other subtropical fruits are the thirstiest fruiting plants. Water once a week or more, deeply each time. Pile on the mulch to keep moisture in the soil.

• Planting new citrus or avocado trees? Don't make the mistake of planting into a lawn. Trees, fruit trees especially, have very different water and fertilizer needs compared to lawn. Trees planted into lawn will fail within a year or two. Instead, plant citrus and avocado into beds with a dedicated inline drip irrigation zone and no understory to compete with. Mulch well.

• When to plant? We can't fault nurseries for offering plants when they are in their blooming glory — that's when the plants are prettiest. Sadly, though, most are best planted before or after they bloom. Practice patience. Make a note of the plants you love, then wait for their best planting time.

• So, for example, natives like monkey flower, native peonies (yes, there are native peonies), buckwheat, black sage, Pacific pea, blue dicks, blue-eyed grass and other natives continue their spring show. Make note of those plants now, but wait until the cool of fall to plant them.

• Plant annual flowers near your vegetable garden: marigolds, calendula, zinnias, sunflowers and more. They attract pollinators and beneficial insects.

How to pick pollinator plants:

- Tube-shaped flowers support hummingbirds, butterflies and moths: sages, Grevillea, native currants (Ribes).

- Large clusters of small flowers support butterflies and moths: Aster, mints, milkweed.

- Flat, wide flowers support bees: poppies, native Clarkia, Zinnia, Aster, daisies.

- Bowl-shaped flowers and flat flowers support beetles: California poppies, magnolia, sunflowers, yarrow.

Did you know: Beetles pollinate 88 percent of all flower plants around the world!

• Inland, stop planting drought-tolerant shrubs and trees, including natives, now. Continue planting in coastal gardens.

• Deadhead spent flowers on roses and spring perennials to encourage one more set of blooms before the hot weather. Always cut at a branching point. Never leave a stub.

• What's blooming? Spring blooming sages (Salvia) are peaking now. Sages bloom in nearly every color from peach (Salvia africana-lutea) to blue (Salvia chamaedryoides), to purple (Salvia guaranitica and its hybrids), red (pineapple sage, Salvia elegans), white (native Salvia apiana), pink (Salvia microphylla), and so on. Shop for sages in your local independent nursery.

• Succulents got a great soaking over winter. Aloe, Agave, Euphorbia and many others both look gorgeous and are fine to plant now. Use them for color and texture in your garden.

• Looking for a lawn alternative? This is the time to plant a "meadow" using natives like clustered field sedge (Carex praegracilis), native bent grass (Agrostis pallens) and blue grama grass (Bouteloua gracilis). Underplant with spring blooming bulbs for a colorful spring surprise.

• Holes in leaves? Plants grow many leaves — a few holes aren't a problem. Just ignore them.

• Spray whiteflies and aphids off with a sharp stream of water using a Bug Blaster hose end nozzle. The critters’ soft bodies can't withstand the impact of the spray. Repeat every few days for several weeks to interrupt their reproductive cycle.

• Eliminate ants to control aphids, mealy bugs and scale. Ants "farm" these bugs by moving them around the garden and harvesting the sweet "honeydew" they excrete. It is the perfect ant food.

• Got gophers? Protect new plants by planting into gopher baskets. Line the undersides of raised beds with hardware cloth. Catch tunneling gophers with GopherHawk traps.

• Fungus gnats in house plants are pesky but don't damage plants. Give your plants an outdoor vacay now that it's warm at night. Native predators will take care of the gnats for you.

• Got slugs? Slugs and snails abound after the wet winter. Sprinkle Sluggo into garden beds to kill them. Check plants at night for tell-tale slime trails.

Despite the abundance of winter rain, by summer it will be dry again. Stick to your water-conserving ways.

• Start up your irrigation system now that rains have ended. Water only when the soil is dry, once every week or two or three.

• Cover the soil with a 3- or 4-inch-thick layer of mulch, leaving a bare sunny spot for ground-dwelling native bees. These bees are important pollinators in gardens and for native plants; they rarely sting.

• Use rock mulch for succulents, wood-based mulch for nonsucculent ornamental plants, straw (not hay) on vegetable gardens.

• The goal of irrigating is to wet roots, so water long enough to get water down to the root zone — with drip irrigation that could take an hour or two. Stick your fingers down into the soil to be sure it is wet as deep as the roots go. Wait to water again until the soil dries out.

• Run irrigation before 6 a.m., before peak weekday water demands. Drip can run at night but not overhead spray. Wet leaves in the cool hours are susceptible to molds and mildew.

Sterman is a waterwise garden designer and writer and the host of "A Growing Passion" on KPBS television (agrowingpassion.com). She offers webinars on many garden topics, and GardenWise, a monthly garden subscription service at waterwisegardener.com.