Driving through town yesterday, I commented that our spring season is a full two weeks ahead of average. The flowering crab blossoms are opening and the color of tulips and Virginia bluebells is what I hope to see the week of Mother’s Day. Two weeks less of winter is fine in my book and I am appreciating every day of it!
If you have weeds and creeping Charlie showing up in your lawn, this is the perfect time to attack that problem. Weed sprays are most effective when the weeds are growing actively, and they are really growing actively right now.
Vegetables you should be getting planted soon in your garden are peas, onions, beets, carrots, radishes, potatoes, lettuce in any form, spinach, kale, kohlrabi, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage and onions. These vegetables prefer a cool soil temperature to get growing, and that good start will make a big difference in their productivity later.
If your landscape has perennials that seem to be getting too big, i.e.: miniature daylilies, purple dome asters, tall ornamental grass, hosta, etc., this is a good time to get out your spade and remove half of that clump. Fill the vacated spot with soil and the shape of the remaining plant will not be affected. You will be rewarded with a much healthier perennial that will be less susceptible to disease problems and produce better color.
Many perennial plants expand toward the outside of their growing perimeter, and the center often dies out from being too crowded. You can’t prevent this, but you will alleviate the problem by removing half and thereby create a new outside edge.
And speaking of perennials, this is the best time to apply a granular fertilizer to provide a nutrient boost for those plants for the growing season. Perennials have their burst of new growth at this point in the growing season after which they mature and develop their blooming apparatus.
In my article last week, I talked about applying Systemic Rose Care. This is a granular product, not a liquid spray as the heading given to my article indicated. I apologize if that was misleading to you.