- March garden to Do's
- Plant your cool-season
veggies such as lettuce, carrots, turnips, spinach and radishes.
- Growing annuals from
seeds usually offers the largest varieties for gardeners. Now is a good time
to start up the seed trays indoors.
- Trees and shrubs that
are beginning to stir will benefit from an application of time-release
fertilizer now.
- Do mild stretching
exercises daily to tone up winter-weary muscles for the pushing, pulling,
reaching, grabbing, bending and digging to come.
- As new leaves start to
appear on roses, begin regular fungicide applications to prevent rust, black
spot and powdery mildew.
- Want to try an
Earth-friendly fungicide on your roses? Mix a tablespoon of baking soda and
a drop or two of liquid detergent into a gallon of water. This should be
sprayed on foliage regularly throughout the growing season.
- Many summer-bloomers
such as althea, crape myrtle, oleander, buddleia, pomegranate and vitex
flower on new wood, so prune early this month to encourage more blooms.
- Early-blooming shrubs
such as spirea, forsythia and flowering quince are best pruned after their
flowers fade.
- New plants and fresh
foliage attract old enemies. Watch for aphids attacking the developing
leaves, and cutworms cutting down young annuals as they emerge from the
ground.
- If your Camellia
japonica specimens are still lighting up the landscape, rake up the spent
flowers weekly and dispose of them to prevent camellia petal blight.
- Migrating birds will
soon be returning, so clean old nests out of birdhouses, wash the birdbath
and remove old seed from feeders.
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