Get your seeds out for the unofficial start of gardening season

Get planting this May long weekend, the unofficial start of gardening season in Alberta.

Rain followed by a warm, sunny weekend will make for excellent weeding and planting conditions.

"This is wonderful. I'm tired of baking trying to clean out my yard," Kath Smyth of the Calgary Horticultural Society told theCalgary Eyeopener.

"We came out of winter into that hour-and-a-half of spring, too dry, so we need moisture and we need some nice softer days. This is perfect."

The weeds won't be flowering yet, and they'll be easier to pull from the damp ground.

"This is going to be really easy weeding weather," she said. "I find it very soothing. Get on it now because two weeks, you're going to be fighting the flower part of it."

Rip out any randomly appearing plant material, she said, and consider mapping out your garden in the future, so you know which sprouts are good and which aren't.

Time for veggies

It's a good time, too, to finish planting your vegetable garden. Pretty much anything can go in at this point, according to Jim Hole, a professional horticulturist and co-owner of Hole's Greenhouses in St. Albert, Alta.

"If you're at all risk-adverse, you may want to hold off just on some of the really heat-loving crops, like squash. Maybe give it one more week, but I would still put it in," he told Alberta at Noon.

"I mean, odds are still very, very good. We could still get some frost, but you don't want to lose the crop at the other end of the season in the fall."

If you are nervous on a cooler day,throw a frost blanket over your less hardy vegetables to protect them.

Smyth recommends planting shrubs and trees now, too. She said some apple trees are out now that work well in Calgary, in particular the heartier varieties. She personally likes the September Ruby apples that bloomwith apples almost the size of ones in the grocery stores.

Mulch needed

If you do plant new trees or perennials, don't pack the mulch up to the plant like a "mulch volcano," Smythsaid. Pull it away so it catches the water that drips from branches and leaves.

"Mulch is necessary to keep moisture in the ground, and this is probably the earliest I've ever started preaching the mulch song," she said. "When you do water, keep it low, keep it slow."

Smyth warns not to "jump the gun" on some flower varieties, like begonias or impatiens. Fuchsias will be knocked out by the bustling wind.

"But gosh, there's snap dragons and petunias and grasses and your trailing verbena, and all those things you can get in. Get them going," she said.

Pansies are especially tough plants and can be put in the ground now, as well.

"I personally am going to do some serious gardening so I'm going to finish planting my vegetable garden," she said.

"And I'm going to visit the garden centre and see what's new and exciting, and probably do an impulse buy."

The City of Calgary is offering free compost to residents, as well. Bring your own shovels and buckets,and try going in the afternoon when it's less busy.

The facility is at12111 68th St. S.E. in Calgary and is openbetween 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

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With files from theCalgary Eyeopener and Alberta at Noon.