May is planting time in the west. Seeds of hardy vegetables and flowers are already planted. Seeds of more tender kinds should not be sown until the danger of late spring frosts is past. Treatment of seeds will reduce losses from seedling diseases.

Vegetable transplants may be set in the garden according to their ability to resist frost. Early cabbage, broccoli, head lettuce and onions can go in even before the frost season is over. Transplanting of celery, cauliflower and main crop cabbage can be delayed for a couple of weeks or so after killing frosts end. Plantings of tomatoes. eggplants, and peppers should be delayed until all danger of frost is past.

Weak fertilizer solutions (starter solutions) help to give plants a stimulus at transplanting time.

Growing Glad

Generally, glads can be planted at the time trees are leafing out. Subsequent plantings can be made to provide a succession of bloom, A succession can also be had if different size corms of a variety are planted and if different varieties are chosen to bloom at different periods. Make sure the late blooming varieties chosen will bloom before frost threatens in the fall. Glad corms can be saved over from year to year if proper storage facilities are available. If new corms are purchased, buy good quality, disease-free ones from a reliable source.

Spring is the most important planting time here in the west, and nurserymen are hard pressed for time to fill all the orders. It really gives them a break when you give your order in early.

You may be disappointed if your order is a last minute one. Often choicest items will be sold out and you will have to make second choices, or wait for another planting season to secure those special plants you want.

Do your landscape planning in a leisurely manner. Dont wait until the rush of spring to have your yard plan ready. Today, the emphasis in land- scape design is on developing areas for living. A useful, livable and beautiful yard does not come as a result of last minute planning, hap-hazard planting and random placement of garden structures.

Careful landscape planning is the result of studying the needs and wants of the entire family, putting it down on paper, studying it thoroughly from all angles, making alternative plans and then coming up with the best compromise and solution to all the problems.

Try to keep a list of garden jobs on a card to do during March, and hang it where you don’t lose it so you’ll be sure to get the jobs done when time and weather permits in the East.

The bed south of our sun porch is a problem; it is in the heavy shade of a shellbark hickory, also shaded by a huge honeysuckle. It is not only shaded, but it’s dry. I find that even with watering it is rather hard to keep primroses alive in this spot so I am going to use it as a place to try out some of the named varieties of lily turf that I got last fall. I have ‘Majestic,’ ‘Lilac Beauty,’ ‘Monroi White,’ and Silver Ribbon. These are all varieties of liriope. They can take shade, rather dry growing conditions, and also the birds. The planting is just under the hanging bird feeder and the birds, especially sparrows, going after the food they throw out, are rough on tender plants like primroses.

north February

February also is the month to do some serious planning of the garden for the coming season instead of waiting until you have the seeds or plants in hand ready to be planted in spring. This is an ideal time to consider all the possibilities, color combinations, sizes and textures, space requirements and all the important details that will make a garden more than a mere collection of plants.

Garden planning should be done on paper after a list of the plants you prefer has been compiled. Quadruled paper which may be secured from office supply stores or artists supply shops is a great aid in making planning on paper easy because the lines give you an exact scale with which to work, use the eight or ten scale ruled paper.

Give an index or key number or letter for each of the plants you want to grow. Then on the basis of their size and form, color and texture of both foliage and flowers, develop a plan on the paper.

You will be amazed at how simple planning can be and how superior results are over the hit-or-miss, spur of the moment type of planning which is so commonly done a few minutes before planting.

Reading, studying and planning your garden and landscape activities are good ways of occupying oneself during the month February for the Northern gardener. The average home gardener devotes far too little attention to planning, that is, seriously thought out and studied arrangements.

Too much planning is of the spur-of-the-moment type given just before seeds are sown or plants set out. This seldom proves satisfactory and undoubtedly accounts for the fact that there is much more good horticulture practiced than good garden art. Gardens and plantings of any sort should be studied on paper where various arrangements can be worked out without involving any actual planting.

Groups of plants can be moved about effortlessly on paper until what seems like the most harmonious scheme has been developed. This is the way truly artistic gardens are obtained; it also is the most economical way to get results. You can determine on paper just how many plants will be needed and the space they will take.