Now’s the time to prune gardenias
the ground. Seeds need to be lightly raked in or covered with up to a half an inch of soil. Fertilizer can be applied and mixed with the soil prior to sowing but not scattered with the seed. Sown areas need frequent watering to keep the surface moist until the grass is established. Other grass seed of Bermuda, centipede and zoysia are available but need at least the same amount of care.
Most plants don’t like to be disturbed during flowering time, so you can expect blooms to be lost. Dividing walking iris won’t cause major decline if you obtain good roots with your plant portions. Most likely, forming flower buds should continue to open, but the plants are likely to then start new growth and not flower again until later in the summer. Luckily, most walking iris can be in bloom spring through fall.
Starting eggplant seeds now may not bring early fruiting. It is probably best to wait until mid-July to make the sowing. Like their relatives the tomatoes, eggplants are temperaturesensitive. Too hot weather and you get growth and maybe some flowers but few, if any, fruits. Plantings want warm weather, not hot, to set a good crop.
When you wait a bit longer to sow the seeds, the transplant can be set in the ground around mid-August. These start growing the full-size plants that set fruits in early fall when temperatures begin to moderate.