It's beautiful outside these days making it the perfect time to get out in the garden and take care of that to-do list we all dread so much.  Follow these June to-do tips to get your yard in tip-top shape.

WATERING:  If ever there was a year to apply mulch to our soils this would be it.  The Everett area rainfall is about 4 inches below normal which is the equivalent of a month’s worth of water that would normally be in our soils for plants to draw from and it just ain’t there.  This year especially it is so important to water efficiently and to do all we can to conserve that moisture.  Watch for my advice on how to get the most out of the end of your hose next week.

Here we are in the last week of May and for the most part the glory of spring has faded away.  If we want to keep a continuous display of color in our gardens then we need plants that will bloom in the summer rather than the spring.  Besides the obvious choices of annuals, perennials and bulbs there is a surprisingly large pallet of shrubs that will give us a thrill throughout the summer months.  Here are some of my favorites.  For a more complete review come to our free class this Saturday May 30th at 10am taught by Trevor Cameron C.P.H. and learn more about how to incorporate these plants into your landscape. 

The year was 1956, I was 8 years old and the family was on a vacation up the California coast.  We were traveling up Hwy 101 and came into the town of Capitola which is near Santa Cruz.  There along the side of the road was a nursery growing tuberous begonias and for this 8 year old kid it was love at first sight.  Fast forward 6 years to my first job at the Coronado nursery (I can’t believe they actually hired me at 14 years old) and one of my jobs was to pot up tuberous begonias.  I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  These shade loving plants come in both upright and hanging varieties and have colorful blooms that look like carnations on steroids.  Far superior to the “non-stop” varieties on the market these days, these American tuberous begonias are extremely hard to find but worth the effort to locate them.  With a little effort the tubers can be saved from year to year resulting in larger and larger plants each successive season.  I have seen tubers the size of dessert plates.

There is no shortage of chores for the month of May, just a shortage of time and perhaps a shortage of space to list them.  If you are feeling like a chicken with its head cut off then hopefully this will help you focus.  Here are the highlights for May...

When it comes to flowering shrubs there is nothing quite as spectacular as a rhodie in full bloom.  Anyone who has grown up in the northwest can attest to the glorious sight of a yard full of these incredible plants.  They come in many colors and sizes, are usually evergreen and for the most part are easy to grow.  With proper selection a person could actually have a rhodie blooming in their garden from February through June.  

Back in my hippy-dippy days of the late 60’s and early 70’s I was a devotee of the organic gardening movement with subscriptions to Rodale’s Organic Gardening Magazine along with Prevention and Mother Earth News.  My favorite cook book was Diet for a Small Planet and Adelle Davis’s Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit.  I had a fabulous organic garden and a very large compost pile but my passion was far from mainstream.  Fast forward 40 years and I am pleased to say that organic gardening and eating healthy have indeed become the norm and it is very gratifying to see this happening.  Here is a quick overview of the essence of what organic gardening is all about.  Sign up for our class this coming Saturday at 10am and learn all the ins and outs of this gardening style.

April is a grand month to plant a tree and it is no coincidence that most states and our federal government celebrate Arbor Day during the month of April.  This week I would like to talk about three different groups of trees starting with Japanese Maples....

Last week we touched on roses, lawns, pruning and assessing winter damage and if you happened to miss it you can go to my website at www.sunnysidenursery.net where all of my columns are archived and searchable by various topics.   Now on to the rest of the list...

Yes, this month it will take two weeks to dispense all my gardening wisdom for the month of April.  There’s just too darn much to do to fit it into one column...

For all you hard core veggie gardeners out there you probably already know that March is a good time to get started on the veggie garden.  But first timers may not realize that there are really two seasons to plant veggies (and I suppose a third in the fall) and that we can’t just plant everything all at one time.