After all of the snow and freezing in Durham Co. this winter, gardeners can finally start their annual spring preparations! |
By Durham Co. Master Gardeners
Now that chances for snow are finally waning, Durham County gardeners can start getting back to business!
Fertilizing
- Fertilize shrubs.
- Fertilize your important shade trees.
- Fertilize asparagus beds early in March before spear growth begins.
- Ponds should be fertilized starting this month and continuing through October.
- Before planting your vegetables, fertilize your garden as recommended by your soil test results. Apply the recommended amount of lime if this was not done in the fall.
- The average last spring frost date in Durham County is April 15 +/-11days.
- Plant a tree for Arbor Day! Arbor day is always the first Friday after March 15.
- Plant your small fruit plants, grape vines and fruit trees before the buds break.
- March is a good month to transplant trees and shrubs.
- New shrubs and ground covers can be planted the entire month of March. Be sure to follow your planting plan.
- Plant seeds of the following perennials: columbine, hollyhock, coreopsis, daisy and phlox. Sweet William can also be planted this month.
- New rose bushes can be planted this month.
- Plants of broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower should be set out in the garden in mid-March.
- The following vegetables can be planted this month: beets, carrots, Chinese cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, Swiss chard, turnips, potatoes,cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower.
- Start any annual flowers or warm-season vegetables inside your home that are not commercially available in early March.
- Prune fruit trees.
- Prune spring flowering plants like breath-of-Spring (Winter Honeysuckle) and flowering quince after the flowers fade.
- Prune roses late in March.
- Prune shrubs like abelia, mahonia and nandina this month if needed.
- Pick off faded flowers of pansy and daffodil. Pansies will flower longer if old flowers are removed.
- Overgrown shrubs can be severely pruned (not needled evergreens).
- Spray the following landscape shrubs for the following insect pests: euonymus-scale, juniper-spruce spider mites and hybrid rhododendron-borer.
- Start your rose spray program just prior to bud break.
- Spray your apple and pear trees with streptomycin for control of fireblight while the trees are in bloom.
- Begin fungicide spray applications for bunch grapes.
- Cool-season lawns may be fertilized with 10-10-10, but NOT with slow-release fertilizer. (F.Y.I., cool season grasses like fescue should be fertilized before March 15 to not promote brown spot fungus patches during humid summer months.)
- Apply crabgrass herbicides to your lawn late this month to help control crabgrass in the turf.
- Mow your tall fescue lawn as needed.
- Seed fescue and bluegrass if not done in September.
- Continue to divide perennials like daylily, shasta daisy, gaillardia and coreopsis this month.
- Check garden supplies like fertilizer, insecticides and fungicides to see if you have adequate amounts.
- Check all garden equipment, lawn mowers, tillers, hedge trimmers, tools, hoses and sprayers to see if they are in find working order before they are needed.
- Be certain that old plantings of perennials like peony, hollyhock and phlox are clean of last season’s growth.
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