JUST CAN'T WAIT?\Itching to get their fingers dirty, gardeners tend to midwinter\chores and plan ahead for spring.

Byline: Diana E. Lundin Daily News Staff Writer

Under an unseasonably intense sun, Liz Barash lifted her straw hat and wiped a few beads of perspiration from her brow, careful not to transfer any of the caked dirt from her gardening gloves onto her forehead.

"It's all dependent on the weather," said Barash, a Van Nuys retiree who has been tending a little piece of earth for the last 15 years at the Sepulveda Garden Center in Encino. "It's always changing, always something new to learn."

Though her broccoli, sweet peas and lettuce are still producing, Barash's garden has entered a new phase, more grooming than growing. No matter how eager she is, it's not time to plant this summer's crop of vegetables. Not just yet.

"If it gets cold and you put plants out, then they'll die, so you really need to wait. Maybe April, maybe March, depending on if the weather holds," she said, her hands resting lightly on her gardener's shovel. "I'm trying to get it weeded. Then when the weather warms up, I'll put in cucumbers and tomatoes and beans."

But cheer up, tillers of the soil.

While it may be early to plant your summer vegetables, there are still plenty of ways to get your hands dirty, from the mundane, like spreading a layer of manure to fertilize your lawn, to the sublime, like cutting your first bouquet of daffodils.

"It's kind of an in-between season," said Lili Singer, a Van Nuys horticulture consultant and co-publisher of the Southern California Gardener, a six-times-a-year newsletter. "Although it feels like summer right now, it's actually midwinter. But there's actually a lot to do right now."

If summer vegetables are waiting for their day in the sun, the ground welcomes nearly anything else.

"The only thing I would not plant are the tropicals, like citrus, ginger or bananas, just in case we do get some more cold weather," said Singer, who also offers a weekly gardening commentary on KCRW-FM (89.9) on Tuesday evenings. "Everything else, we're in primo planting season."

It's the tail end of bare-root season for roses and fruit trees that are packaged without soil, but if you hurry - and if there's any selection left at local nurseries - you can get away with getting them in the ground pronto.

"But you have to plant them right away, especially with this heat," she said.

If your fruit trees are already established, they could stand some attention at this time of year, said Bob Bramhall, a master gardener with the Los Angeles County Extension Office.

Bramhall recommended spraying peach and nectarine trees whose buds haven't opened yet with a dormant oil to prevent diseases from gaining a foothold in the leaves. "This is the only time you can control peach leaf curl," he said. Other trees - but not citrus - can also have either their first or second dose of either a copper or sulfur compound mixed with oil to protect them from pests.

You also can whip out your shears and do some light pruning. "But do not prune spring-flowering trees and shrubs and vines until after they flower," Bramhall warned. "And wipe your pruning shears with rubbing alcohol after every cut to avoid spreading diseases."

You can also take the Felcos to begonias, cannas, asparagus ferns and pyracanthas as well as cutting back fuchsias to within an inch or so of the ground.

And, if you're feeling ambitious, it's not a bad time to divide your perennials such as agapanthuses, African daisies, chrysanthemums, coreopsises, day lilies and delphiniums.

"Another thing that is very important is to water judiciously," Bramhall said. "What does that mean? It means when it needs it. If you've got the Santa Anas blowing like we just had, you should water it more."

Pat Welsh, author of "Southern California Gardening: A Month by Month Guide" (Chronicle Books; $20) and the upcoming "All My Edens: A Gardener's Memoir," doesn't believe in rushing the season.

"It's February, and more than anything else, it's the time to get going and prepare for March," she said. "March begins the big spring planting season. Dig up the ground, amend the soil, clean out the winter vegetables and get ready to plant spring crops."

"Feed me" is what Welsh hears the garden crying out for during February, the shortest month.

"Keep on feeding your citrus trees, and begin to fertilize your avocado trees, and lightly feed your deciduous fruit trees just when the buds begin to break. But lightly. You don't want to burn them with too much fertilizer," she said. "And fertilize cool-season lawns."

Speaking of lawns, Welsh can't think of a better time to level a Bermuda lawn. Just as it begins to grow, whack it right back down to the base, to help it thrive during hot weather.

And listen up, fans of azaleas and camellias. These showy, acid-loving plants should be blooming right now, which makes them an excellent choice for planting.

"That's one of the great things - you can buy them in full bloom. Otherwise, you'll make a horrible guess and get something you don't want," Bramhall said. "And if you want to transplant them, now's the time. When they're blooming, they're dormant."

But hold back the fertilizer. "Feed your camellias and azaleas after they've flowered," he said.

Flowering perennials can go into the garden now, but it's too early for heat-loving annuals that bloom in summer, like marigolds, Singer said. But petunias are a smart choice.

"Petunias are subject to pests and diseases later in the year, but if you put them in now, they'll grow and flower, and they'll look good before it gets hot and smoggy," she said.

Also, gladioluses are prone to a thrips attack in hot weather, but if the bulbs are in the ground now, they'll be able to stave off an assault from these pests. "And you get perfect flowers," she said.

Want some color?

Put it in.

"You can still do winter color," said Mary Cameron of Chatsworth Nursery Center and Landscape, which has supplies of cool-weather plants such as pansies, violas, snapdragons, stocks and primroses, among others. "It looks real good now. It will go through March, April, maybe May. Then it's June, and that's a disaster for them. It's instant death."

And don't forget ranunculuses and anemones, which both come from tubers. "If you missed planting your bulbs in the fall, you can still get color by planting them from 4-inch containers. It's like getting the full benefit of bulbs. They'll come back next year," she said.

Other tubers and bulbs that can be planted right now for a spectacular summer show are tuberoses, calla lilies, cannas, gladioluses (or gladiolas), tigridia, dahlias and lilies.

"All do like the sun," Bramhall said.

And remember that the winter annual flowers and spring bedding plants need fertilizer to keep them going, Welsh said. "When the nights are cool, plants need more nitrogen," she said. "All these winter bloomers respond magnificently to nitrogen."

Even violas, which can rot when their leaves are left too wet, can be coaxed back to life by cutting them back and fertilizing them before the next rain. "They'll bounce back," she said.

Tomato growers are some of the most eager gardeners there are, Bramhall observed. But please - try to be patient.

"Don't be in too big of a hurry until the soil temperature gets around 63 degrees. A lot of people, when it's warm like this, will go out and buy everything. That means in a month or two they'll be buying them again. Everyone wants to have the first tomato on the block, but tomatoes don't do well until (the soil) gets to 63," he said.

To get a leg up on your tomatoes, though, Cameron said go ahead and buy the plants in 4-inch containers.

"What I recommend is transplanting them to a 1-gallon container and keep them in a sunny place, a sunny patio where they're protected. Then, when it's really warm in a few weeks from now, they'll have a really huge root structure," she said.

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Photo (1--cover--color) Sow what? It's the time of year to make decisions for your summer garden. (2--color) no caption (seed packets) (3--color) "You can still do winter color. It looks real good now. It will go through March, April, maybe May. Then it's June, and that's a disaster for them. It's instant death." Mary Cameron, left of Chatsworth Nursery Center and Landscape (4) It's the very end of the season for planting bare-root plants, such as roses and fruit trees. So hurry and get them in the ground, as Aase Christensen does with a rose bush at a community garden in Encino. (5--color) Midwinter blooms attract a hummingbird at Chatsworth Nursery Center and Custom Landscape. (6--color) A crayon box-full of colors entices buyers at the Chatsworth Nursery Center. (7--color) Beverly Kirpatrick works in her plot at a community garden in Encino. Bob Halvorsen/Daily News Map/Box Starting a flower garden