Home Gardening

North Mississippi Gardening Tips
March, 2001

SPRINGTIME NOTES

March is one of my favorite months in the garden. Besides bringing the first official day of spring, this month ushers in the first real signs of nature's awakening. The first hint of pale green can be seen as the buds of trees swell in the woods. Springs bulbs are in full flower. Pussywillow, forsythia and spirea are showing off their blooms and my three rowdy boys are home for spring break! All is right with the world as the promise of another gardening year begins to unfold. As I behold the emerging beauty of God's creation, my spirit soars and is renewed. I can't wait to get into the garden and commence throwing seeds and new plants in every direction!

I hope you have more self-control than I do. To help you maintain discipline and some sense of order in your own gardening endeavors, please refer to the information in the following paragraphs. As for me, I'm glad you cannot see my garden right now, or I would be embarrassed for you to find that one so-called expert does not follow her own advice when it comes to her own gardens! As the well-meaning but contradictory parent said to his child, "Do as I say, not as I do and you will be alright."

LAWNS

For those of us who failed to apply a pre-emerge herbicide last fall to control winter weeds in our lawn, it's time to get out that lawnmower and begin mowing our crop of weeds before seed heads are produced to perpetuate our mistake for another year. I really don't mind having to mow winter weeds in my dormant turfgrass. It's spring and any activity that gets me out of the house is fine by me! If you are not so tolerant, be sure to mark your calendar in September to apply a pre-emerge herbicide to control annual winter weeds such as henbit, annual bluegrass, chickweed, wild mustard. You can treat established winter annual weeds in dormant turfgrass this month with post-emerge herbicides.

Late in the month apply a pre-emerge herbicide to prevent germination of summer annual weeds. Do not apply post-emerge herbicides to warm season grasses during "spring transition." In north Mississippi warm season grasses begin the spring transition to active growth in mid to late April into May. Post-emerge herbicide applications on warm season grasses are safe after May 15th.

Don't be tempted to fertilize your warm season turfgrass before the middle of May. All you will be doing is feeding your weeds. Do fertilize your cool season turfgrass like tall fescue and Kentucky bluegrass this month.

Contact your local Extension office to request a copy of publication # 1322, "Establish and Manage your Home Lawn." It contains an abundance of information on herbicide and fertilizer recommendations, turfgrass or ground cover selection, disease and insect control and has a handy "maintenance calendar" to keep you on schedule.

SHRUB AND TREES

Finish pruning roses and summer flowering shrubs, like crapemyrtle as soon as possible. In my opinion the only pruning that should ever be done on trees is to remove damaged or wayward limbs. If you find yourself having to prune your trees or shrubs to keep them in bounds you probably have them in the wrong place! Always, always consider the ultimate height and spread of any plant before you choose a location.

Climbing roses like 'Blaze,' 'New Dawn,' and the climbing hybrid teas should be pruned by thinning out the older canes leaving the long, young branches, which produce the best blossoms. Continue planting dormant bare-root roses through this month. Container-grown roses can be planted now through April.

Begin a complete rose spray program as soon as new leaves begin to emerge late this month. Apply a combination spray containing a fungicide and an insecticide. Read and follow label recommendations. Completely cover all foliage, canes and mulch surrounding the rose plant when spraying pesticides.

Continue planting trees and shrubs throughout this month in your landscape. The old adage of preparing a $100 hole for a $25 plant still applies. Make the planting hole two to three times wider than the root ball of the plant and no deeper than the height of the root ball. The root ball should rest on undisturbed soil. Backfill with a mixture of two-thirds existing soil to one-third organic matter (peat moss, compost, rotted sawdust, etc.). Water well and apply a "root stimulator" fertilizer if desired. Apply a complete fertilizer four to six weeks after planting.

FRUITS AND NUTS

Finish pruning all fruit trees and grapevines as soon as possible. Coincide the spring fertilizer application on fruit trees with bud swell. It's time to fertilize when the developing bud has cracked its brown shell revealing green tissue. Depending on the weather this generally happens in mid to late March in our area of the state. It is always best to base your rate and frequency of fertilization on a soil test, but the following general recommendations can be used. For apples, peaches, nectarines and plums use one-half to one pound of 15-15-15 per year of age of the tree. Do not exceed a maximum of 15 pounds per tree for apples and five pounds per tree for peaches, nectarines and plums. If you do not know the age of your trees, apply two pounds of 15-15-15 per inch in diameter of the tree measured just above the soil line. This translates into about a pound for newly planted trees.

For newly planted fruit trees spread the fertilizer around the edge of the hole you dug when planting. For established trees spread the fertilizer in a wide circle away from the trunk but not beyond the spread of the outermost branches. I always feel like I have done a better job if I lightly scratch the surface of the soil around the tree after I have applied the fertilizer. It makes me feel better and if we get a torrential rain at least some of the fertilizer will more easily penetrate the soil surface before it is washed into the ditch or my neighbor's yard.

Of all the choices of home fruits we can grow, the one in my experience that returns the most fruit with the least amount of effort on my part is the rabbiteye blueberry. In my humble opinion, every home orchard or landscape should contain these plants. Rabbiteye blueberries are not bothered by disease or insects, require no pruning, set more than enough fruit for you to bake all the blueberry muffins your heart could desire and have attractive flowers and fall foliage color to boot! All they really require is a well drained soil rich in organic matter with a pH of 4.5 to 5.5. Be sure and plant two or more different cultivars for cross-pollination and good fruit set.

VEGETABLES

There was a time in the not too distant past when every rural homestead in Mississippi had a humongous vegetable garden spot. It was a necessity as most of the family's food came from the garden. Nowadays, the family vegetable garden is thought of more as a form of recreation rather than necessity. Regardless why you grow vegetables, there is no denying the sense of satisfaction you feel as you sink your teeth into your first tomato of the season!

Continue to set out cool-season vegetable transplants of cabbage, broccoli, collards, and cauliflower throughout the month. Get those Irish potatoes and onion sets in the ground by March 15th for best results. Seed cool-season vegetables like beets, carrots, mustard, radish, English peas, leaf lettuce and turnips this month. Finish planning your summer vegetable garden and purchase the rest of your needed seed supplies from the local farmer's co-op or garden center. Don't fall into the trap of the "over zealous gardener" and think you need to plant a 100-foot row of everything. If you plant a 100-foot row of summer squash, eggplant, bell pepper or cucumbers expect to harvest 100-150 pounds of each of these vegetables! That's great if you're feeding a large army, but it's too much if you're feeding the average family of four.

Consider your family's needs as you plan your summer vegetable garden. Do you want produce just for fresh eating or do you plan to freeze or can some of your harvest? How much time do you have to devote to the garden? Are you physically able to manage a large garden? Do you have the right equipment-tiller, tractor or hand tools? When you've honestly answered these questions, then you are ready to get growing!

PERENNIALS AND ANNUALS

Time to cut down all of those dead, "not so ornamental anymore" grasses before new growth starts from the crown. I'll tell you a little secret. If you perchance wait till after the new growth starts and you whack it off with the dead part-don't fret. By the middle of the summer when the new growth is head high no one will be the wiser.

Now is the time to mow over that raggedly looking monkeygrass. You better adhere to the schedule on this one. Because if you wait till new growth starts and you whack it off with the old foliage, the tips of the new growth will look horrible all summer.

If you haven't cleaned off the dead tops of last year's annuals and perennials in your beds yet, do it now. Take advantage of the nice days this month to get a jump on the weeds in your flowerbeds. Remove all weeds, being particular not to pull up those little volunteer flower seedlings. Once the beds are clean, apply a pre-emerge herbicide in those beds that you don't want any flower or weed seedlings to emerge. Do not apply a mulch yet, as the ground is still cold and the mulch will delay warming of the soil and growth of the emerging perennials and summer bulbs.

Now is the time to divide and transplant daylilies, hosta, phlox and other summer and fall blooming perennials before the tops become to large and are easily broken. Plant peonies and iris throughout the month. Begin to spray fungicide on emerging peony and iris foliage to control botrytis and other foliar diseases.

CHECKLIST

Lelia Scott Kelly, Ph.D., writes North Mississippi Gardening Tips monthly and is a Horticulture Specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. Her office is in the North Mississippi Research & Extension Center, Verona.