Here in the Southern Sierra signs of imminent Spring are everywhere. Ceanothus are budding, and a few of them, like the ones at the Springville Native Plant park, are beginning to bloom. Heuchera and Hummingbird Sage also are sending out or opening flowers. Manzanita have been blooming for almost a month now.

Is summer around the corner?

Okay, sorry about that.

But we don’t know yet whether this will be a long, cool, rainy spring or a short dry warm one or a combination.

Your established native plants will adjust and manage. Pretty much like many of us. Roll with it, adapt, no worries…

What I’m thinking this means for those of us who garden with CA native plants is:

We should try to plant early, in case it gets hot fast.

We should make sure we are mulching our beds, not leaving bare dirt, to save water and moderate soil temperatures this summer.

We should make sure our irrigation systems are working as efficiently as possible, that means lawn sprinklers too. If we don’t have an automatic system, we should think about how we will keep our plants hydrated when we go on vacation.

We should avoid fertilizing our native plants. This is always true, but especially when we don’t necessarily want to force a lot of tender foliage that will need to be supported (watered) all year.

What’s on your mind? What have you observed in your own garden?

Look forward to talking to you/meeting you soon. Check out the newsletter for where I’ll be this month. Connect via Twitter and facebook to add to the conversations. It would be great too if you could “Like” the Quercus page on facebook.

Thanks for being part of my world!

Peyton

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