Waiting, Weeding...

If you've planted early spring things, now is the time where mostly you wait. Since we've had such damp weather, if you are growing under open sky, it's unlikely you have even needed to water. In any case, make sure the soil where you have planted seeds stays damp constantly until the plants are a few inches tall. After that, the surface can get dry, though of course you'll need to keep the root zone watered enough. More about that in a future post.

Weeding is also good, since by now many weed seeds will have sprouted as well. But don't weed unless you are confident you know which plants are yours and which are the weeds. Once you know that, weeding frequently is a great thing.  If you kept things small, then each time it's just a little work to weed, and the more often you do it, the less work it is next time.

If you are waiting to plant the late spring things like tomatoes and basil, don't be tempted to start early. It's really best to wait until about the May 24th weekend before you plant frost-tender seedlings outside. But to give you advance warning, you should buy the seedlings about a week before you want to plant them outside, so you can "harden them off". If the seedlings you buy have only ever lived in a greenhouse (which is typical), they will not be ready for the unshielded sun and normal night coolness. So you have to take a few days of putting them out in the sun for a little while, and bringing them inside on very cold nights, but leaving them out on moderately cool nights. That lets them get used to real-world conditions.

Fruit

Beyond our vegetable shortlist, if you would like to plant perrenial fruit plants, now is the time to plant strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and currants. These are all plants that live for years, so you plant them in a place that is their own. Of these, raspberries and currants need more sun (but will tolerate a bit of shade), and strawberries and blackberries are alright with a bit more shade, but still need to have a decent proportion of sun. They are all great to have, producing a lot of fruit for very little work. The main work is stopping them from spreading (all of them spread outwards by their roots, and blackberries will usually grow way too tall as well if you don't prune them through the year).  Also it's good to spread lots of compost on the ground around them each year as well (except for blackberries, which don't need help).