It’s still early in the gardening season, it’s an ideal planting time!

• Enjoy the free water coming down as rain. If you’ve already set your sprinklers to water, be sure to delay watering for several days.
• Get ready to plant annual flowers and plants in containers. Planting flowers on Mother’s Day is traditional for many people, but it’s OK to delay for another week or so to be sure the weather is cooperative. Scroll down for tips on how to plant container gardens.
• Plant! Don’t forget to amend the soil with organic material and/or gravel when you plant. 

There are a few other tasks you can delay:

• Wait to remove the spent foliage from daffodils and tulips until the leaves turn yellow and pull up easily. It’s OK to cut off the spent flowers but “leave the leaves” alone as they feed the bulbs for next year.
• Hold back at least another week before setting out the warm-season vegetables such as pumpkin, tomatoes and beans. These plants are sensitive to cold nighttime temperatures.
• Postpone trimming back roses. I learned last year that it’s best to procrastinate trimming back the roses until the latter part of May. By then, it’s really easy to see which canes are viable and which are not.