Home Gardening

North Mississippi Gardening Tips
March, 2006

LAWNS

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.

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.

VEGETABLES

 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.  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!

FLOWERS

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 wait until 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.

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.