March Showers bring April Flowers....is that how it goes? Well, it seems like it around here. This warm weather with consistent rainfall, sure makes plants happy. I am just overwhelmed by the sounds of spring, our feathered friends really have announced its arrival. And amongst the winter landscape, you can see spring emerging. What a beautiful time of year.
Vegetables and Herbs:
It is time to prepare that Vegetable Garden. If you are a year round gardener, you can plant carrots, lettuce, potatoes, radishes and spinach now. If you are preparing your garden for summer veggies, go ahead and clean out your bed, turn the soil and add some soil amendments. You can start Eggplant, Tomato and Pepper seeds indoors now for transplanting in April.
Lawns:
Its not quite time to fertilize your lawn, but continue to keep up with those weeds by pulling them or apply an herbicide. Be cautious when applying sprays on windy days. This is also a great time to apply
Milky Spore. This is an organic product that will help kill the grub stage of the Japanese Beetle. Grubs can damage the root system of your lawn while the adult Japanese Beetle can damage foliage and blooms on Roses and other shrubs.
Annuals:
OOOHHHHH!!! I know your pansies are starting to look better than they ever have. They love these slightly warmer days and cooler nights. Your snapdragons will also start blooming again. New annuals are arriving in our greenhouses that love the spring weather and some that will bloom from now until Fall. You can fertilize your annuals with a slow release fertilizer, like
Osmocote or you can use a liquid fertilizer, like
Daniels.
Perennials:
OOOHHHHH!! Perennials are just as exciting as annuals this time of year. It is so fun to watch perennials break dormancy and send out new foliage and then bloom. We have many new perennials to choose from, phlox, dianthus, columbine, moneywort, blanket flower, and the list goes on.
Shrubs:
We have beautiful new shrubs arriving this week, including hollies, gardenias, azaleas, encore azaleas and much more. The Forsythia, Flowering Quince and Bridal Wreath Spirea are still blooming. They will soon be joined by those early blooming azaleas, Knock out Roses, Some Varieties of Viburnum and much more. Shrubs could use some fertilizer after they break dormancy. You can use a liquid feed, like Daniels or Bayers' Feed and Protect. We also have a 10-10-10- granular and a 4 month slow release.
Don't prune shrubs right now if they should be blooming in the spring. Do not prune Hydrangeas that will be blooming this summer either. However, you can prune evergreen shrubs that do not bloom and those shrubs that bloomed last fall or this winter.
Trees:
We have great trees to choose from, Dogwoods, Redbuds, Flowering Magnolias, Crepe Myrtles, Apples and much more.
