Spring Gardening Tips
As the weather warms, our thoughts naturally turn to the garden. Maybe you’re thinking of planning a family BBQ or inviting friends to enjoy a game of croquet on your lawn. Is your garden ready for its spring debut? Have you completed your seasonal to-do list for your yard yet?

Take a look at the check list below to make sure you’re covering your bases. Also, this is a good time to think about what steps you should take to beautify your existing yard as well as consider how you can best conserve water through the installation of effective irrigations systems. I have some specific suggestions on how your family can save water and money.

So here's my list of tips for spring gardening:

• Aerate, thatch and fertilize lawns if you didn’t do this in the fall. For established lawns, you should start mowing in the spring, but don’t cut the grass too short. Three inches is best for Fescue. Make sure that you don’t leave lawn clippings on the lawn during the winter/rainy time.
• Think about upgrading your conventional irrigation clock to an ET (evapotranspiration) system. You can save between 20-25% of water use with this technology.
• Consider replacing your irrigation heads to MP rotator heads to save water and get more absorbed. We are seeing up to 25% savings. Combine the ET and new irrigation heads and you can save up to 40% of water!
• Plant your vegetable and herb garden and don’t forget to seed some pumpkins for the fall. To protect these new plants from frost, have plastic tarp available to cover your beds overnight when temperatures get cold. Create a cold frame with PVC pipe to prevent the tarp from weighing down on the plants.
• When your early blooming shrubs, such as lilacs, forsythia and viburnum, prune them as soon as blooms have passed. Early spring is also an ideal time to prune your roses, if you haven’t done so already.
• Pull weeds from your planting beds and borders before they have a chance to take hold and spread. Apply pre-emergent, if necessary. Re-mulch to replenish decomposed mulch. NOTE: Do not use tree chips from an outside source because you are inviting diseases and pests. You can get recycled mulch from Organic Solutions in Benicia, it’s been heat sterilized and composted for 2 years. 
  
• After the bulbs are done blooming, remove the spent flowers, but leave the rest of the plant for the time being. The green tissue will recharge the bulb for next year.
• Fertilize and mulch planting beds and borders. Spring is also a good time to fertilize fruit trees. 
• Spring is a great time to add new plants to your garden or to think about renovation of your landscape. This is a good season to plant trees, shrubs, hardy annuals and summer blooming bulbs as well as install hardscape elements and upgrade your irrigation system before summertime. 

Winter Gardening Tips
It's easy to forget about the garden during winter. It's time to move indoors, build a fire and enjoy a good book or board game with your family.

But it's important to do just enough in your yard during the cold dormant months so that when your landscape springs back to life in March or April, it's in good shape to bloom and flourish.

I should also warn that with the extremely dry summer and fall we've just experienced here in the San Francisco Bay Area, it's important to make sure your trees have been properly maintained and pruned in order to weather the wet and cold months of winter. The drought stresses plants and can cause unforeseen breakages and safety hazards if left unattended in the garden.

So here's my list of tips for winter gardening:

• Trim your roses.
• Prune and trim your dormant trees.
• Plant bare root shrubs.
• Spray fruit trees with high grade dormant oil for scale insects.
• If freezing temperatures are forecast, water your citrus trees and other plants that are at risk of freezing as well as cover them with burlap. A well-hydrated plant will tolerate the freezing temperatures better. Burlap will protect the plant from the icy temperatures while still letting it breathe.
• If your lawn is frozen, do not walk on it, it will break the blades of the grass.

Thomas Raeth, the owner of Lafayette Tree & Landscape based in Lafayette, Calif., is a licensed landscape contractor, certified arborist and certified pesticide controller. His company has been designing and installing inspirational gardens, ponds, walkways and patios as well as many other decorative landscape features for its clients for decades.

Lafayette Tree & Landscape serves Lafayette, Orinda, Moraga, Walnut Creek, Danville, Alamo, Pleasant Hill, Martinez and many other Contra Costa County communities as well as the Oakland hills.