May

Is the gardener or landscape crew, or are you keeping up with the spring growth? Depending upon whether we are considering a maintenance-intensive perennial garden, a live and let-live native garden, or a commercial landscape, May can be a busy and sometimes unpredictable month. With their intermittent and sometimes intense rains, March and April will lead us to May, where rain (and snow) can still occur in places. Hopefully, all spring planting is done, and we are focused on maintaining what we have.
Spring blooms begin to whither while plants continue to push forward their last growth before settling into summer lazy days. Weeds can still be a problem, and if we ignore our irrigation systems, issues start to appear with flooded gutters and geysers. On this note, there is a straightforward test to perform on drip irrigation systems: listen. Turn on a drip irrigation valve and walk along the area being watered. If you hear a “hiss” sound, chances are there is a link in the line.