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Improved
Potting Mixes
Today’s
potting soil comes with many bells and whistles. One of my favorites is
a mix that includes polymer crystals that hold extra water in the soil
without making it soggy. Anytime that you can increase the time between
waterings for pots, you’re doing yourself a big favor. You can also
buy the crystals in a jar. I hydrate the crystals first and mix them
into the soil in a wheelbarrow before filling my containers.
Easier
Watering for Pots
and Baskets
A
good watering wand with a water breaker is great for containers because
the flow is regulated and gentle. The long wand makes reaching high
hanging baskets and window boxes a whole lot easier, too.
A Tip For
Dahlias
For
the strongest dahlia stems ever, take this advice given to me by a
fellow gardener in the Dahlia Society. When planting the tubers of tall
dinner plate types, add a 1/4-cup of triple super phosphate in each
planting hole. Your dahlias will grow such sturdy stems that you may
need a saw to cut them down. Just kidding, but they won’t flop over so
easily.
Lawns
You
can buy lawn fertilizers now to be sure that you get what you need, but
wait until the weather brings out the new green blades before applying
to warm season grasses. Centipede doesn’t like too much feeding or it
will decline. Feed it just once in the spring with a product that
contains iron for a little extra greening. Centipede 15-0-15 is perfect
because it omits phosphorous that can cause the grass problems.
Other
warm season grasses (St. Augustine, Zoysia and Bermuda) appreciate
fertilizer in the spring and summer, their peak growing months. A
slow-release source of nitrogen with trace elements will help your grass
stay green while growing at a sane rate through the warm season.
However,
if you have fescue, a cool-season type, this is a good time to give it
the last feeding before the weather turns too hot for it. Fescue is
better off with just water but no fertilizer during the hot months or
you will encourage disease.
Tomatoes
for Many Months
Want
to enjoy tomatoes from the same vine until frost next fall? It can be
done. Start with a good, disease-resistant indeterminate variety such as
Early Girl, Better Boy, Bonnie Original, Superfantastic or other
favorites. Plant in rich, well-prepared ground or a 5-gallon container
filled with premium potting mix and timed-release fertilizer. Set your
plant deeply so that all but the top two leaves are buried. Water at
ground level to avoid wetting the leaves and mulch to keep the ground
moist.
The
trick is to keep diseases and insects from consuming your plants.
Fortunately, gardeners now have a great ally in a product called Neem;
it kills mites and also controls many insects and diseases. Spray your
plants with Neem every week or two, depending on disease and insect
pressure. Be sure to coat both sides of the leaves and reach into the
interior of the plant. Good coverage is critical.
Cool
Weather Flowers
Those
snapdragons and pansies that you planted last fall should be coming
along very nicely now. If your pansies look leggy, trim them back an
inch or two. In South Alabama, just leave them because they will soon be
replaced with warm season flowers. Today’s snapdragon hybrids are much
more heat tolerant than older varieties, so after your snaps bloom, snip
off the flower spikes to keep them in place until fall. Water through
summer and they might surprise you with a great flush of bloom in
autumn, especially in North Alabama.
Have
a great time getting back out into the garden this month.
Lois
Trigg Chaplin is author of The Southern Garderner’s Book of Lists
and former Garden Editor of Southern Living Magazine.
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