DENVER — Colorado’s dry fall, dry winter and now our warm, dry spring have thrown off the timing of plants and gardeners.
Fruit trees are blooming prematurely. Whether or not they can escape a hard freeze in April and May is concerning. We’ll see.
Other plants are emerging and budding. Despite the drought, bulbs appear to be putting on a good show anyway.
Continue to cut back and clean up perennial beds. Leave plenty of leaves and other debris in place. This helps to conserve water. It also suppresses weed seedlings and the crumbling leaves enrich the soil.
Water use will continue to be a concern. I’m not yet watering perennial beds or turf.
I am feeling I’m behind on seed starting. So, I’m busy planting seeds of zinnias, marigolds, basil, peppers, eggplant and other warm season annuals. I sow the seeds in shallow pans. Once the seedlings are about three inches high, I transplant them to individual pots.
This may be a challenging garden season. I joke about planting tomatoes now, but I’m kidding. Don’t plant those just yet.
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