Planting
Bedding plants/annuals are now available to replace any cool-season annuals that are just about done. Zinnia, ageratum, coleus, dahlia, marigold, nicotiana, phlox, petunia, salvia are in season. Also, try some taller annuals such as cosmos, cleome, sunflowers, and foxgloves to add height and interest to the garden beds.

There's still time to plant roses. They are full of buds and blooms right now--and they are simply gorgeous.

If you are a beneficial insect lover, flat-topped flowers like Shasta daisies, scabiosa, strawflowers, and yarrow are perfect additions to your garden for feeding them. Beneficial insects such as the almost microscopic parasitic wasps, ladybugs, etc. keep other insect pests away from your vegetable gardens by eating aphids, scale, and other annoying intruders. You can use beautiful flowers to tempt these garden friends into your garden. Try putting some of these flowers near to your rose garden for aphid control!

Time to plant dahlias, begonias--and get in the gladiolus bulbs. Add some bone meal to the planting hole.

The narcissus and daffodils are blooming, as well as other spring blooming bulbs. As soon as the blooms are spent, you can deadhead--but don't remove the foliage! The bulb needs that green foliage to add nutrients back to the bulb for next year's flowers. Hide the clippers for a little while longer. Try an old-fashioned technique of braiding the leaves. If you must cut, leave at least half of the leaf length for the bulb. It will thank you with next year's bloom!

It's time to start warm season crops. Coastal areas can continue planting cool season crops like the leaf lettuces, radishes, and spinach for a while. Inland zones (not the high desert, though) can start the warm season vegetables such as beans, corn, squashes, cucumber, eggplant, tomatoes and peppers. We have them all and more.

Maintenance
Continue with fertilizing those areas of the garden you haven't gotten to yet. Once your azaleas and camellias have stopped blooming their hearts out, they will thank you if you feed them. This is a good time to prune back these two spring bloomers. Once the flowering has ended and before the new growth begins, prune and shape to your desired shape and size.

You may see some chlorosis on your acid-loving plants like the azalea or camellia, and possibly on your citrus. This yellowing of the leaves between the veins is a sign of iron deficiency for the plant. Feed with a good iron supplement.

Especially near the coast, this is the time we begin to see powdery mildew on our rose foliage (and other plants too). There are several different foliar fungicidal sprays to that can help.

Aphids will be back. Remember that you can first wash them off with water. Really, it does help. For more severe infestations, ask us to recommend something suitable for your particular plants.

Continue to replenish your mulch and maintain a 2-4" blanket over your soil.

Long valued for their profuse sprays of flowers from spring to early summer, coral bells (heucheras) are now also being valued for their bold, showy foliage. This genus of perennials has received a lot of attention from horticultural breeding programs in the last decade, and the result is an introduction of wonderful variations in foliage colors, leaf shapes, and flower colors.

While most original coral bell selections produced light green early spring foliage which then matured to a darker green later in summer, newer varieties are now available in amber, bronze, burgundy, purple and ruby tones. Even the newest green-leafed varieties now come dressed up with silver veins, mottling or streaks. Many new cultivars also come with exquisite ruffled foliage.

Using coral bells in the landscape provides a contrast to other plants, making your garden more interesting. Adding bronze, red, or purple foliage to the landscape brings out a new dimension of color. When these vibrant colors are placed next to green plants, your eye is drawn to the entire landscape--creating interest and depth. Most coral bells form evergreen mounds less than a foot high and across; the flowers appear 1-2' above the foliage.

Even the flower colors have benefited from breeding programs and now come in shades of bright pink, coral, red, cream, and white. The flowers provide an extra benefit to the garden by attracting hummingbirds, butterflies and beneficial insects to the garden. The spent flowers are easy to remove; you need only tug gently from the base of the stem to remove them.

While coral bells prefer partly shaded locations, these hardy plants can also tolerate full sun in milder summer regions of the U.S. They perform best in moist (but not wet) soils and need only a modest amount of feeding during the growing season. Don't neglect them completely though, because the nutrients in plant foods help bring out a deeper, darker more intense color in the foliage.

Plant them in borders or in clusters of three or more, so that their sprays of blooms will have an even more dramatic effect in the garden. Coral bells also make great container plants because they don't have an aggressive root system. Coral bells are just what you need to add some flair to your garden.

Answer:

It can if you have bad drainage or have plants close to a downspout. Most neighborhood properties are designed to allow water to drain away from the home, and if you have any type of slope at all your plants should be okay, barring a 30 day torrent of water. However, plants next to downspouts can suffer, so it is wise to add a downspout extension to steer water away from prized plants in areas where water might collect.

If you still face a bad drainage situation, consider re-landscaping that area with bog-loving plants. If you hate bog-loving plants, you could always sell your home. After all, what good is a home if you can't plant your favorite plants around it?