First Week
- Fertilize pansies. Since the soil is warming, use any water soluble houseplant fertilizer, one half pint to one pint of solution per plant.
- Start seed of tomatoes and annual flowers indoors. You'll need six weeks to grow strong transplants.
- Cut most of the green foliage off of tattered liriope. A mower, set to its highest setting, is the best tool for large areas.
Second Week
- If you haven't spread lime on your lawn in a year, it's time once again. Use 40 pounds per 1000 square feet.
- Prune boxwood - but not with shears. Use a hand pruner to make foliage "holes" in the greenery so light can penetrate to the trunk.
- Plant bare-root roses in soil that contains plenty of organic matter and which has been thoroughly tilled.
- Spray a fungicide (Captan, etc.) on apple and peach trees while the blooms are on the tree.
- Now is the time to prune giant holly shrubs back to a manageable size. Don't be shy - you can cut them to eighteen inches tall and they will come back.
Third Week
- Fertilize pecan trees with one pound of 10-10-10 for every inch of trunk thickness.
- Plant beets, cauliflower, mustard, radish and turnips in your garden.
- Planting fescue now? You can't use a pre-emergent weed preventer for six weeks after seeding.
- Divide overgrown clumps of hosta now that you can see the leaves unfurling aboveground.
- Use atrazine (Purge) to kill weeds in centipede grass lawns.
Fourth Week
- Examine the backside of euonymous and camellia leaves for scale insects. Thoroughly spray with horticultural oil if the pests are found.
- Wait to plant gladiolus, canna and caladium bulbs until mid-April - they all need warm soil in which to grow.
- Remove spent camellia blooms from the bush and from the ground. You'll prevent camellia petal blight.
- Last chance to prune bush roses to approximately one half their present size.
Fifth Week
- Sharpen your mower blade or replace it with a new one.
- Forsythia, quince and winter honeysuckle can be pruned to a smaller size after flowering.
- Fertilize shrubs: 1 tablespoon of 10-10-10 (or shrub fertilizer) per foot of height.
|
