Home Gardening

North Mississippi Gardening Tips
April, 2001

SPRINGTIME NOTES

This month brings true spring weather to north Mississippi. We can enjoy bright, sunny days puttering around in the yard and cool, crisp evenings hovered around the fire in our outdoor chimney pot. The gardens are bursting with new growth and vivid colors like the grape Kool-Aid purples of grandmama's flags (iris) and the hot-pants pink of the bank-hugging thrift (phlox subulata). The forest trees are wearing that indescribable shade of pale green that only lingers as long as it takes the delicate, new leaves to completely emerge and pump themselves full of deep-green chlorophyll.

This is the season for those spring thunderstorms that roll in, quickly dump their load and leave everything looking shiny, fresh and bursting with new growth. When the distant woods across the bottomland pasture from our house are displaying this mantle of chartreuse foliage and are backdropped by the brilliant azure sky after a thunderstorms has rolled through, the picture is one that literally makes me want to burst into song! It's a good thing spring only comes once a year because when I am moved to song it spooks my brother's cows so badly they don't give milk for a week!

During this season there is no lack of beauty to behold as nature brings our plants and us back to vibrant life. There is also no lack of things to do in the yard and garden. Luckily, our enthusiasm for gardening is at its peak in spring-so there is no lack of energy to tackle the work to be done.

ANNUAL FLOWERS

Garden centers and nurseries are chock full of a wide assortment of bedding plants right now. Selection and quality are the best in spring, so get shopping. But hold your horses just one minute and answer this question before you charge down to the garden center. Are you one of those who lose your self-control at the sight of waves of 'Purple Wave' petunias or who salivate over 'Indigo Spires' salvias? If the answer is yes, slap yourself hard on both cheeks before you get out of the car at your favorite garden center or nursery. That might settle you down a bit and help you exercise some judgement before you come home with a trunk full of clashing flower colors and peculiar plants that you spend the next week trying to fit into your landscape.

Seriously, try to have a reason to buy that flat of bright red geraniums, other than red is your favorite color. Here are some questions to ask before you buy:

1. Where is this plant going?

2. How many plants do I need to fill the bed area?

3. What's the ultimate height and spread of these plants?

4. Does this foliage or flower color complement the house exterior and surrounding plants?

5. Can I afford all this stuff, or should I go to the house and hope that last year's plants reseeded themselves!

SOILS AND MULCHES

Every gardener spends their life trying to improve their soil-because every gardener knows good soil is the foundation from which all the beauty and bounty of plants arises. Do you have good soil? If you don't, now is the time to do something about it before you fill all those beds with plants this spring.

One old farmer's test for determining the difference between good and bad soil is this: if you can walk on the soil after a good rain and it sticks to your "galoshers," you need to fix it.

How? First, know that the reason it sticks to you boots is because of the clay content. If you have this problem the easiest solution is to add organic matter. Compost, well-rotted sawdust and peat moss are just a few examples. Add a four to six inch layer of organic matter to the existing soil and till in thoroughly. After the addition of organic matter is a good time to do a soil test because the organic matter can alter the pH. Contact your county Extension office for information and assistance on soil testing. After you have added the organic matter and any amendments or nutrients that the soil test recommended, you are ready to plant. The finishing touch to your planted beds is the addition of mulch. Mulches serve many purposes. They control weeds, conserve moisture, are attractive, and of particular importance in our climate they insulate the roots from the extreme fluctuations in temperature that are all too common in the spring.

VEGETABLES

Insects are attacking vegetables now. Aphids, flea beetles and caterpillars are just a few of the critters chomping away. When you have to spray your vegetables always read the label and do not harvest the vegetable before the recommended days to harvest from time of application has passed.

You are anxious to get those warm-season vegetable seed in the ground. But, until the ground warms to above 60 degrees Fahrenheit most warm season vegetables including beans, squash and corn will not germinate reliably. If you're planting watermelon, cantaloupe or okra the soil temperature should be at least 75 degrees for good germination. By the middle of this month the ground should be sufficiently warm for good germination of most warm season vegetables. How do you know what the temperature of the soil is? You could try what gardeners in ancient times did to determine the soil's warmth and readiness for planting. It was standard practice to remove one's trousers and sit on the ground before seeding to determine whether the soil was warm enough. If the flesh found it discomforting, it was too early to sow. I think we can safely assume the ancients weren't intimately acquainted with our fire ants.

FRUIT

Planting and pruning of fruit trees is passed. Now is the time to stay on schedule with your spray program. You may think, since the apple, pear, grape, peach and other fruit are not easily visible that it is all right to skip a spraying or two. Don't do it. Insects and disease are out there and looking for a host. It is difficult for the homeowner to produce supermarket-quality fruit, but maintaining a regular spray program will help keep those unwelcome visitors from surprising us when we bite into that apple. By the way, do you know what's worse than finding a worm in your apple?-a half of a worm!

The strawberries you set out earlier this spring should be settled in and flourishing. Be sure to keep them well mulched or the weeds will quickly take over your beds. The mulch makes a nice pad for your knees as you crawl down the rows next month picking those berries. It also keeps the berries clean and prevents you from getting a mouth full of grit when you can't resist popping that big strawberry into your mouth.

Our native grape, the muscadine, rarely needs spraying in my home orchard. What it does need is a vigorous pruning once a year to keep it in bounds and fruiting well. If your muscadine vine stills looks like a giant hairball, don't despair. You can still prune if you do it early in the month before the flowers bloom. Don't let the sap flowing from the cut branches disturb you. It won't hurt the plant.

Spraying of bunch grapes is important if you want to prevent black rot. This disease, if not controlled by regular spraying of fungicides, can cause a total loss of your grape harvest. It starts as brown rotten spots on the grape fruit and quickly spreads throughout the cluster until the entire bunch is brown and rotten. The end result is a rock-hard bunch of dried raisins. Contact your county Extension office for spraying recommendations for fruits. The Extension service has numerous publications outlining spray schedules for various home fruits.

GROUND COVERS AND LAWNS

Warm season grasses like zoysia and bermuda grass are going through the "spring transition" beginning this month and continuing into May in our area. This is the time that the grasses are breaking dormancy and beginning new growth. Do not apply post emerge herbicides to these grasses during this period. They can damage or hinder turf in the early stage of active growth.

If you haven't fertilized your cool season tall fescue lawn do it early this month. We are fortunate in north Mississippi that we can grow this cool season grass as a permanent shade turf unlike our brethren further south. The turf type tall fescues like Rebel, Mustang and Hound Dog, are good selections for us. My shady lawn of Rebel fescue has been known to stay green year round when the winters were mild and I didn't forget to water during July and August.

There are some things in life you cannot do no matter how hard you try. You can't talk sense into your teenager. You can't kiss your own elbow and you can't grow grass in heavy shade under trees. What you can grow is moss. If you have it already encourage more of it. It's a lovely green practically year round. It never needs mowing. It makes a nice bed on those balmy, warm spring days when you want to lie on your back with your little one and gaze at the puffy clouds moving across the sky. If moss doesn't suit you, here are some good ground covers for shade: English ivy, monkeygrass, mondo grass, periwinkle (Vinca minor) and hosta. This month is a good time to plant these ground covers in those shady areas.

PERENNIAL FLOWERS

Early this month is the time to fertilize your fast-growing perennials. A general recommendation without a soil test is 2-3 pounds of 8-8-8 per 100 square feet of bed area. Wash or brush off any fertilizer that comes in contact with the foliage. I personally like to use the slow-release fertilizers. They are more expensive, but they will release their nutrients slowly over a long period of time and you don't have to worry so much about the fertilizer burning the foliage. Read and follow label directions for rate and frequency of application. Try not to disturb the roots and crowns of your established perennials as you add annuals to your borders. Continue to add newly purchased perennials to your bed areas, keeping in mind how the plant's bloom season, height, spread and cultural requirements fit into the overall planting. It is not too late to carefully lift and divide those perennials that do not have heavy top growth or have already started to bloom

TREES AND SHRUBS

When dogwoods bloom, someone always asks can I successfully dig a young dogwood tree from the wild and transplant it in my yard. The answer is yes, but why would you want to? Trees growing in the woods are seedling trees that take much longer to flower than named selections such as 'Cloud 9' and 'Cherokee Princess'. Bloom size and quantity is typically less on a seedling tree also. Your wild tree is certainly more likely to harbor disease and insect problems than one cared for by a reputable nurseryman. So go ahead and dig up that tree, but don't be disappointed if it doesn't turn out to be the asset to your landscape that you had envisioned.

Azaleas are strutting their stuff this month. These plants when in flower are the glory of the Southern garden. Don't fall into the trap of thinking you have to have one of every color. There's a difference between having mass of color in the landscape and having mess of color that makes you nauseated or dizzy. If you insist on having competing bloom colors separate them with white-blooming varieties and plant in mass. Shop for new plants now when they are in flower, so you can match the colors to what you already have. Prune azaleas after flowering, but only if really necessary.

Keep up the spray program on roses. Blackspot is the major disease to control. Apply appropriate fungicides on a 10-12 day schedule. Apply more often during rainy weather. The application of fresh mulch around rose bushes will cut down on disease organisms being splashed back from the old leaf litter.

Fertilize spring-flowering trees like dogwood, redbud, ornamental cherry, crabapple and others as the petals fall. Use one pound of 5-10-15 fertilizer per inch circumference of the tree measured three feet above the ground.

Many shrubs will be finishing up their bloom this month. This is the time to encourage new growth by fertilizing. Summer flowering shrubs can also be fertilized now. A general fertilizer recommendation for shrubs is one-half pound of 13-13-13 per three feet of the shrub's height.

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.