Fertilize trees and blooming shrubs once their flowers have faded.  Give them a light prune to remove spent blooms to keep them tight.

• Give the lawn one last feed before summer.

• Water your plants deeply and as infrequently as you can to encourage deeper roots in preparation for hotter weather and potential water rationing in the summer months.

• Potted plants and hanging baskets will need more water as the temperatures warm up.  It will be important to supplement with a fertilizer as the increased watering's will deplete the nutrients.

• Get your annual bedding plants in the ground so the roots can become established before the heat arrives.

• Summer heat loving annuals to plant:  zinnia, cosmos, sunflower, four o'clocks, celosia, penta, periwinkle, gomphrena, portulaca, scaevola, coleus, marigolds, dusty miller and angelonia.

• Heat loving garden plants:  sweet potato slips, malabar spinach, okra, cantaloupe, pumpkin, summer and winter squash, watermelon and southern peas.

• Magnolia trees typically drop their  older leaves in May.  The leaves turning yellow before dropping to the ground.​