NOW'S TIME FOR PLANTING COLOR, CLEARING OUT BRUSH.

Byline: Jane Gates Special to the Daily News

We are now in prime planting time.

All the trees and vines that were inexpensively available bare-root in the winter can still be planted from slightly more costly pots now. There are great selections of perennial flowers, grasses, vines and bushes that can all go in the ground.

The choice of annual color is enormous and you can use these plants to fill in bare spots while perennials grow to size, or even do full beds of color and change them out for new annual plantings when these begin to fade.

I personally prefer to use more perennials, but for people who want perpetual color and have a gardening service to supply the labor, this is the only way to keep a garden continually ablaze.

Stroll through the home centers and nurseries and try out something different this year. If you need advice, ask and you'll probably get all the information you need.

Don't forget to top-dress for the coming heat, stake young tall plants early and keep an eye out for pests before they develop into a full-blown problem. Keep weeds pulled.

If you can regularly pull weeds when they are small, they will come out easily. Once they grow bigger, many send down long taproots - such as cheeseweed and dandelions - that make it difficult to kill them off completely. Most important is to remove them before they bloom and set seed for an ever-bigger crop later in the season.

Try to keep brush trimmed when it's green and easy to cut. If you wait until later in the season when it dries out, it will become tough and stringy and hard to cut. If your property borders on brush lands, it isn't just a matter of aesthetics.

It's easy to look at all that natural landscaping and appreciate the beauty of Santa Clarita, but remember the safety for your home, family and everything you've worked for is vulnerable to brush fires.

Any new green will be desiccating into a crispy brown invitation to fire in no time. With all the brown left over from last year and the lack of rain this year, we have to consider safety early this season. If you have any doubts, check out the scorched land in Bouquet Canyon.

And don't forget about the possibility of using that same land to grow a more controlled wild garden filled with California natives or other drought-tolerant plants. Do some research.

There are still a few that do well planted in the spring, although the majority will do better in late autumn or winter. There are some spectacular flowers that grow readily in the environs of Santa Clarita, yet need no added water after the first year or two as they establish themselves.

You can actually plant a colorful, low-growing hillside with wildfire resistance and no extra care or watering to maintain it. It will take some planning and a lot of work, (especially to remove that older brush) but the result will last a lifetime. During wildfire season and as water bills escalate in the future, you could be the envy of your neighborhood.