Home

• If necessary, clean or replace a furnace or air conditioner filter. Always write the replacement date on a filter, so that you will know exactly when it was put into service.
• Do furnace and window or central air conditioning, or evaporative cooler maintenance recommended by the appliance's manufacturer. Vacuum cold air returns, registers and baseboard heaters.
• Clean concrete, masonry or stone patios, driveways, walkways, and sidewalks by pressure washing, steam cleaning or using a cleaner formulated for the particular material. Repair any cracks.
• Before placing painted metal patio furniture outdoors, give the metal a coat of auto polish. Repeat in the fall prior to storing away.
• Clean and prepare swimming pool, pond or fountain for warmer months.
• Check that vent screens to attic or crawlspace are not damaged. Repair or replace as needed.
• Do exterior painting, when it's dry and not too hot.

Garden

• Pinch (cut off) new, growing tips of Cranesbill geraniums, ground morning-glory, verbena, zinnias, impatiens and the first, or top bud, of tall marigolds to encourage bushiness and abundant flowers.
• Fertilize flowers, shrubs, vegetables, containers, summer-blooming perennials, tuberous begonias.
• Feed rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias monthly after they bloom until August when they go dormant again. Use an acid food especially prepared for these plants.
• Lawn mowers should be set at 2 1/2 inches to give lawns better growing opportunities, conserve water, prevent weeds and develop strong root systems
• Tie daffodil leaves in a simple overhand knot, allowing the planting of flowers now. Cut off foliage at ground when it turns yellow and not before to allow full development of the bulb.
• Pinch tips of azaleas, fuchsias, impatiens, marguerites, geraniums and Pelargoniums to encourage new growth and more blooms.
• Thin fruits. Apricots: 2 inches apart after natural drop. Apples: thin at pea size to 6 inches. Peach and nectarine: Early varieties, 6-8 inches, late varieties, 4-5 inches apart. Pears: thin only if heavy crop. European plum: thin to 2-3 plums per cluster. Japanese plums: Thin to 4-6 inches apart, 6-8 weeks after blooming. Asian pears (apple pears) 1 fruit per spur when 3/4" size (6-7 weeks after blooming.
• Spray apple trees six weeks after petal fall with malathion to help control the codling moth. The larva of the codling moth eats into apples, making them wormy and sometimes inedible.