I’d like to sneak in an annual if I may.  This is a reseeding annual so once you have it, you are sure to have it every year, making it seem like a travelling perennial!  This is Salvia coccinea, or Scarlet sage.  Germination is late – seedlings often don’t show up until May; mine is just blooming this week for the first time this year. Of course there are several cultivars of Salvia greggii (native to Texas) that are good perennials.

Next on my bloom chart is Stokes’ aster or Stokesia laevis.  The gorgeous and long lasting blue flowers are a favorite of pollinators.  Even the foliage is a handsome clump of strap-like leaves with a faint white line down the center.  Mine will probably bloom starting next week and continue to have blooms off and on until frost.  I have the cultivar ‘Peachie’s Pick’ which I got from Niche Gardens – very floriferous!  Another late blooming perennial is Skullcap (Scutellaria) – a strange name but a nice blue flower.  As far as I know, mine is Scutellaria incana.

The shade garden offers a few blooms this time of year.  Although the canopy closed in when the trees leafed out, enough filtered light makes it through to support these plants.

As the weather heats up and the grass keeps growing, the thought of doing anything outside, especially a chore, sounds awful.   Perhaps I could suggest some ideas to reduce some of those chores over time - let's be lazy and do less work.

• Don’t mow it as much.  I know many “industry” folk recommend mowing it regularly so that you don’t remove too much of the height at once.  I do not mow on a regular schedule, just when it looks like it needs it.  During dry times, I mow even less frequently so that the longer grass blades can provide shade on the soil to reduce evaporation.  Keep your blade sharp.
• Don’t fertilize it as much.  I actually do not fertilize at all and the grass is beautiful anyway. I save money and time! Consider getting a soil test to see if your soil needs nutrients if the lawn is doing poorly – don’t just assume that fertilizer will help.
• For new lawns, choose a low maintenance grass – for me that is Zoysia.  It is a creeper so it does not require over-seeding in the fall.  It goes dormant in the fall, so it does not need winter mowing like fescue might.  Do not pick Bermuda if you can help it – it is a very aggressive creeper and you will be digging it out of your beds for years to come. 
• Don’t put lawn in shady areas – grass needs sun and it will not do well in shade.  Convert those areas to a shade tolerant groundcover or just mulch.  Moss is a great groundcover - look at these beautiful patches of moss that are taking over these shady spots:

• Watering – reduce or eliminate watering on established lawns (unless you are over-seeding fescue and the seeds are sprouting).  I do not water mine, not even during the drought of 2008-09, and it has done very well (it was planted in 2004).
• Reduce your lawn – consider how you use it and adjust the size to your needs, not what everyone else is doing.  I guarantee some people will be looking at your smaller lawn with ENVY.  A couple of years ago I realized that my sunniest areas were taken up by grass; I’ve been reducing it over the last two years.  I planted a Hawthorn and Crabapple in one area and fall perennials in another.  Lawn areas are not very botanically diverse - I was happy to add some diversity in my yard by replacing some grass.

Leaves, Limbs and Litter – You do want to pick up any litter that finds it way into your yard, but reconsider what you do with the leaves and limbs.  Leaves and limbs are nature’s way of returning nutrients to the soil.  Think of them as extended-release fertilizer!  Leaves on the lawn can often be chopped up with the lawn mower and left in place.  Or you can gather them up if they are too thick and use them as mulch around some trees and shrubs. Limbs and twigs can handled at least two ways: if they are small then break them up with your hands into little pieces and leave them right there; if they are large, pick an out of the way spot in your yard and start a pile.  Loose piles of limbs are a source of protection and shelter for many small animals and birds.  Of course both leaves and small limbs can be added to a compost bin but that’s a bit more work!

• The mature height of the plant.
• The mature width of the plant.
• The plant’s rate of growth. 
•  The plants sun/shade needs.

• Make a few large groups instead of scattering the plants throughout the area.  Larger groups create a more eye-catching mass of blooms.
• Use just one color in each group - again the concentrated color is more noticeable.
• Grouping water thirsty annuals together allows you to spend less time (and money) watering by concentrating on fewer spots.

• Some plants need more water (annuals like impatiens need more water than annuals like petunias).  If you scatter those “thirsty” plants all over then you find yourself watering everywhere.  Put them together so that you can water them appropriately and leave other plants for another day (or not at all).
• Some plants tolerate more water. Take advantage of low places that naturally stay moist to plant water-loving things there – a "win-win" for you and the plants.  Many native shrubs are very tolerant of moist/wet conditions: Spicebush (Lindera benzoin), Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia), Winterberry (Ilex verticillata), Possumhaw (Viburnum nudum), Elderberry (Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis), Smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens), and Virginia sweetspire (Itea virginica) to name a few.

Wet tolerant trees include Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum), Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), Red maple (Acer rubrum), Silverbell (Halesia sp.), River birch (Betula nigra), Swamp white oak (Quercus michauxii), Atlantic white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides), Sweet bay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana), and American hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana).

Weeds – While the technical definition of a “weed” is a “plant that is where you don’t want it”, mostly it means those pesky plants that create a zillion seeds and then germinate right where they annoy you the most! Here are two of the common garden weeds in my area - if left alone, both of these grow to be over 5 feet tall and have insignificant blooms that set many seeds at the end of the season.

Here are my tips for managing weeds:

• Remove them when they are small (and I prefer to remove them by hand if possible because it affords me some exercise and it does not require chemicals).
• Remove them when the soil is moist (after a rain) because they pull out easier that way (and a good weed fork helps with those that have tap roots).
• Remove them before they go to seed – or at least dead head them (and throw away the head, don’t just drop it on the ground).  This is the laziest thing you can do! One of my favorite sayings is: “One year’s seeding equals seven years of weeding.”  Seeds can lie dormant on the ground for several years before germinating. Keep them from going to seed and you'll have fewer next year.
• Use mulch around your plants to inhibit germination as many seeds require exposure to light in order to germinate.

Many folks remember the Poison Ivy/Oak warning as “Leaves of three, let them be.”  However, the real saying is “Leaflets three, let it be” because a poison ivy/oak leaf is a compound leaf that is divided into 3 leaflets.  I suppose it doesn’t really matter if you get into a patch of it, but you might like to learn the difference between simple leaves and compound leaves to help better identify other plants in the future.