Home Gardening

North Mississippi Gardening Tips
March, 2003

March Notes

Glory be! Spring is just around the corner. Have you gotten your "to-do" lists and ideas together? You've had all winter to sit by the fire and mull over that stack of plant and garden catalogs. It will be time to put those plans into action before you know it.

Sharpen those gardening tools, crank up that tiller and get to work-time's a wastin'. Don't you just love it when people give you orders? My husband has said I would have made a great dictator or general. The last time he said this I replied that his life would have no direction or meaning without me and he should treat me like a queen. Laughing like a hyena, he retorted that's just fine as long as he gets to be the one to crown me. I failed to see the humor. Anyway, I'm sure your spouse is better behaved than mine, so you will probably have better luck getting cooperation as you begin to get the garden and yard ready for the planting to come. Good luck and be sweet-as you know, you can catch more flies with honey rather than vinegar!

Annual and Perennial Flowers and Vines

If you're like me you rely on volunteer seedlings to replenish your flowerbeds each spring. In particular, I enjoy the spring or early summer flowers that come back like gangbusters from seed. Poppies, hollyhock and larkspur are some of my favorites. These are prolific re-seeders. You have to thin out great gobs of these seedlings if you want to have full, healthy plants. Do the thinning while the seedlings are less than 3 inches tall. I usually call a host of gardening friends whom I know don't have these plants and offer to give them several million seedlings for transplanting. Works like a charm. They come over, lend a hand, have a big time, and go home with a trunk full of baby plants.

If you haven't removed the remains of last summer's annuals and perennials from the flowerbeds, do so now. Clean, and tidy up all beds, being careful not to remove any of the volunteer seedlings you would like to keep.

Hoeing or hand-pulling those pesky spring weeds from the beds is a job, but one that is easily done now before they really get a foothold and go to seed.

Now is the time to dig up and divide the hostas, daylilies, garden phlox, yarrow and all the other perennials that are emerging from their winter rest.

Once you get your beds cleaned up, you're ready to fill in those empty spots. Stick to the plan and don't waver from your mission as you take your list to the garden center. I know this is hard, especially when tempted by row upon row of plants from which to choose. My rule is to have a definite place in mind for that plant before you purchase it. Also, remember that in our area of Mississippi we could have a freeze until the second week of April, so stay away from purchasing those frost-tender plants unless you have a way to protect them from freezing.

Trees and Shrubs

Pruning is one of the least understood practices of landscape maintenance. If you feel an uncontrollable urge to whack on that tree or shrub, keep repeating this next sentence to yourself over and over. DON"T prune unless there is a good reason to do so. Here are the reasons to do so:

Vegetables and Herbs

Vegetable gardeners should continue to seed English peas, carrots, leaf lettuce, mustard, Irish potatoes, radishes and others-if they can get into their garden spot without miring up to their eyeballs. I avoid the soggy soil syndrome by planting all my early spring vegetable in raised beds. By the time my wet garden spot gets dry enough to work it is usually May and time to start preparing the ground for the warm season vegetables. Using raised beds is a great way to get the jump on the garden season. These beds dry out quickly and are easily accessible. It is not too late to continue to set out transplants of cabbage, collards, head lettuce, onions and broccoli.

Even though some garden centers have them, I would wait until later in the season to set out transplants of tomatoes, pepper and the tender herbs like basil. Fertilize the spring vegetable garden based on your soil test results. If you didn't soil test, a good general fertilizer recommendation for cole crops is eight pounds of 13-13-13 per 1000 square feet, applied as a preplant.

Fruit

This is the month to fertilize fruit trees. If you haven't finished pruning your apple and peach trees do so now. As buds begin to swell on figs you can easily see what branch tips were killed (if any) by winter cold. Remove these cold damaged branches down to a live bud. Fertilize figs with a complete fertilizer such as 15-15-15 at a rate of _ pound per three feet of height. Blueberry bushes should receive a light application of azalea/camellia fertilizer now. A general fertilizer recommendation for apples, peaches, nectarines, pears and plums, if you haven't done a soil test, is _ pound of 15-15-15 per year of age of the tree. Use a maximum of 15 pounds on apples and pears and five pounds on peaches, nectarines and plums.

To control insects and disease on tree fruits begin the preventive home orchard spray program as flower buds begin to show color andcontinue throughout the season until harvest. If wormy and rotten fruit doesn't bother you that much then spraying is not required. As a young girl, I carried a small faux pearl-handled pocketknife I used to cut out the rotten and wormy places in my grand mama's peaches and apples. Her approach to pest control was to plant enough trees to feed us and the varmints. Some times the varmints won. We were taught to eat around the bird peck or rotten place. I can remember many a late summer afternoon spent perched in Mama Suitor's "Indian Red" peach tree, peeling and eating those juicy, sweet fruit as "Porksey" my brother's 4-H pig noisily devoured the peelings I dropped from my perch.

Lawns

If you strive for a weed-free summer lawn now is the time to apply a pre-emergence herbicide to control summer annual weeds such as crabgrass, goosegrass, spurge, knotweed and annual lespedeza. Many pre-emergence and post-emergence herbicides are labeled for use on lawns. A visit to the local farmer's co-op or garden center will confirm this. However, don't purchase an herbicide without considering the following questions. What type of lawn grass do you have and what weeds are present or anticipated that need to be controlled? Is the application of an herbicide the only way to control the weed problem or could better turf management practices to increase the vigor and competitiveness of the turf be sufficient to control the problem? Proper mowing height, fertilizing and watering to encourage lush turf growth can in many cases reduce the weed problem to acceptable levels without the use of herbicides. If an herbicide is required select one carefully which will be safe for your turfgrass and will provide the best control of the weeds.

Since this is the month that we observe St. Patrick's Day, I think it is appropriate that I close with a wee bit of Irish gardening lore. But first let me tell you the other reasons that this month and the Irish are special to me. A goodly portion of my family tree branches is occupied by Irish folk. I married a man of Irish descent who was born in March. Two of my three sons were born in March with the youngest being born on St. Patrick's Day. Now, listen you lads and lassies: If you plant your English and sweet peas on the night of March 17th (St. Patrick's Day) by the light of hand held lanterns while wearing a flannel nightgown, the peas will be superior in taste and abundance-and you will be the talk of the neighborhood, for more reasons than one!

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.