May carries us from spring into summer, offering warmer days, beautiful blooms, gentle and roaring winds and late freezes. As we glide into the season of bounty, Man asks us to hurry up and slow down. As you sink your feet deeper into your garden this month, consider these tricks and ideas to help you create your backyard paradise.

Patience is a gardener's virtue, too

Gorgeous, warm days tempt us, but don’t plant your warm season crops too soon. Tomatoes, peppers and basil are especially sensitive to cold. While they may survive a few cold nights, it will take them longer to bounce back. Wait until Mother’s Day to transplant these garden favorites, and have a few sheets on hand to cover beds in case of late freezes.

Planting tomatoes

Tomatoes send out roots from the lower part of their stems. Plant them deeply so they can send out more roots and sturdy themselves in the wind. Pinch off the lower leaves or lay the plant sideways below ground if your plant is especially tall, leaving about a third of the plant above ground. Trellis tomatoes with twine as they grow taller. Planting a few tomato plants between stakes will make trellising them easier.

Sowing carrots

Carrot seeds will appreciate a cool, damp and dark bed of soil during germination. Facilitate germination by laying down newspaper, burlap or a thin layer of grass clippings on top of your seeds.

Squash mounds

Save space in your garden by plant-ing winter squashes and melons on a mound of soil. You can even form the inner base of the mound with small logs sticks and cover them with compost and soil. The wood will break down over time. Add nasturtium and marigolds to your squash mounds to deter squash bugs.

Fast-growing veggies and more

Radishes are wonderful in the garden because of their fast-growing cycle. Sow them between young, slower-growing crops and then har-vest them when those crops need space. You can also use lettuce mixes and other greens in this way. Not only do radishes and greens help slow down weeds and retain moisture in the soil, they also provide you with another harvest to enjoy. As the weather warms, sow seeds of fast-growing and heat-sensitive plants every three weeks. Planting crops such as lettuce, green onion and cilantro throughout the season, rather than all at once provides you with an ongoing harvest and more tender vegetables.

It's all about timing

Hot days and cool nights make for tasty fruits and vegetables. But young plants are quite sensitive to our high desert sun. Try to trans-plant plant starts in the early morn-ing or late evening, and give plants a deep watering right after to help them settle into their new home. Consider using a shade cloth to protect more sensitive plants during their first few days.

Organic matter matters

As organisms in soil break down organic matter, they create pockets and pores within the soil that store water for plants. Adding leaves and amendments like compost and worm castings helps improve the health of your soil and enhance the diversity within it, which makes for a stronger, more dynamic soil food web.

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• Interplant crops to create a diverse garden ecosystem. A tried and true combination is the Three Sisters—corn, squash and beans. Prepare a mound or flat area of soil. Sow corn kernels in the center of the mound. Plant pumpkin, winter or summer squash seeds around the perimeter of your mound, and add in aromatic flowers. After the corn is a few inches tall, plant a bean seed next to each corn plant.
• Plant peppers and tomatoes after Mother’s Day. When planting tomatoes, remove some of the lower leaves and bury some of the stem to protect tall plant starts in the wind.
• Plant a succession of radishes, lettuce, dark greens, cilantro and green onions.
• Plant flowers and herbs throughout the garden to attract beneficial insects. Dill, basil, oregano, sage and marigolds, among other beloved herbs and flowers, deter many unwanted bugs with their lovely aromas. Carrots, dill, parsley and parsnip attract praying mantises, ladybugs and spiders, which love to eat pesky insects.
• Prune perennials to encourage growth.
• Suppress weeds with mulch and green manure, low-growing cover crops or vegetables.
• Continue to water garlic through June while it’s bulbing. Trim garlic scapes coming up from the center of the plant to enjoy as pesto or in stir-fry.[/checklist-box]