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1. Sample citrus fruit from now until they achieve the level of sweetness you desire. The longer citrus fruit stays on the tree, the sweeter it gets; ripening ceases once fruit is picked. Some like their citrus a little on the tart side and some demand it to be sugary sweet. Navel oranges should be just about at their peak sweetness now as are Satsuma tangerines. Tangleos and grapefruits, however, will need more time to ripen. Two practices will ensure longer shelf life once citrus is picked. First, make sure a small bit of stem remains on the fruit when picking or twisting it off. Second, immediately refrigerate your citrus fruit in a bag. Adopting these practices will result in your citrus fruit remaining fresh for a month or longer following harvest.

2. Get ready for gophers. Gophers have begun to mate and births will occur from March until June. Gophers, which belong to the rodent family, typically live for one to three years. Females generally give birth to one or two litters per year, with about five offspring per litter. Males take no part in gopher family life, and the young disperse as soon as they are weaned from their mother’s milk. Gophers are extremely territorial, which is good news if you have a gopher problem. You may see a dozen mounds in your backyard, but it is probably the work of a single animal, since one gopher will inhabit an area as large as 1,000 square feet. The many crisscrossing burrows made by the gopher form an elaborate underground network. In fact, the word gopher comes from the French gaufre, which means honeycomb. Lately, the Cinch and Gopherhawk traps seem to be getting the best reviews.

3. One of the easiest herbs to grow is borage (Borago officinalis). Plant a few seeds and within a few years you will have hundreds of plants popping up each spring. Borage foliage and stems are covered with a mysterious silvery down and scads of star-shaped celestial blue flowers appear on plants that quickly grow up to three feet tall before dying in late spring or early summer. Dead plants are easily removed and tossed onto the compost heap. Meanwhile, seeds will have already been deposited all over the garden, waiting to sprout next year without any outside help. Too many borage seedlings in your yard? Not a problem. Uproot them when they are an inch tall and consume them like any other edible sprout. Alternatively, detach borage flowers – which have a cucumber taste – before they can set seed and toss them into your salad or use them to decorate your cakes.

4. Prune hibiscus now. This is a plant that flowers on current season’s growth so you do not need to be concerned about sacrificing flowers whose buds formed last fall, as is the case with hydrangeas and deciduous fruit trees, for example. Other plants you can prune now with a clear conscience would be those whose flowers — like those of hibiscus, roses, butterfly bushes (Buddleia spp.) and crape myrtles (Lagerstroemia spp.) — form on the terminals of shoots that start growing now or in the weeks to come.

5. Prune any plants damaged in our recent heavy rains. As temperatures warm and the danger of frost passes, you do not have to worry that new growth, stimulated by pruning, will be burnt in a cold snap. Be prepared for more weeds than usual, however, as the soaking rains will bring up seeds that would otherwise have remained dormant. A scuffle hoe is a handy tool to have around as it easily dispatches young weeds by cutting them off at ground level as soon as they emerge. A heavily mulched garden, of course, will also depress weed seed germination from the simple fact that the sunlight needed for seeds to sprout cannot penetrate the mulch.

Please feel free to send garden questions, comments, problems or inspirations to [email protected]

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Plant, prune, prepare: 5 things to do in the garden this week

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