alafarmnews

• Beets, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, collards, endive, escarole lettuce, mustard, bunching onions, parsley, potatoes, radishes, turnips

• Vegetable bedding plants and seeds

• Strawberries, blueberries, currants, loganberries, boysenberries, grapes, fruit trees

• Bedding plants for spring color such as Petunias, Dianthus, Begonias, Verbena, Lantanas, etc.

• Tender bulbs and tubers such as gladiola, lilies and dahlias. Continue planting additional bulbs every two weeks until mid June to insure continuous blooms

• Transplant pot-bound houseplants

• Good time to start hanging baskets of annuals

• Dig and divide summer and fall blooming perennials, fall asters, chrysanthemums, salvia, etc.

• Transplant shrubs and trees when soil becomes workable and before buds are swelled or broken open

• Bermuda, zoysia and centipede in South Alabama. Seed grass mixtures in North Alabama.

• Aquatics in nursery pots, laundry baskets, shallow pans and large tubs. Add 1” of pea or aquarium gravel on surface and thoroughly water before putting in pond

• (In warmer areas) Divide hardy water lilies every year or two, can start six weeks before the last expected freeze

• Plant for Butterflies and Hummingbirds !!!

FERTILIZE

• If grass needs to be mowed, then it is ready to fertilize (thru April). Do that after about 2nd mowing.

• Wait until April to fertilize warm season lawn grasses and until May for Centipede

• Vegetables: a month after growth starts

• Fruit and pecan trees

• Houseplants with a diluted solution of soluble houseplant food after new growth appears

• Spring-flowering bulbs after leaves appear and before they bloom

• Use a slow-release fertilizer according to soil test on perennials

• Roses after pruning and before they leaf out

• All blooming ornamentals: forsythia, quince, spirea, climbing roses, camellias, azaleas, etc….
………… only after they bloom!!! ………

PRUNE

• Spring-flowering shrubs and vines only after they finish blooming !!! Azaleas, flowering quince, spirea, forsythia, weigela, camellias, Carolina jasmine, wisteria, Lady Banksia rose, etc.

• Fruit trees just before bud break

• To keep pines as a dense hedge, trim new growth or “candles,” trim when new needles are about half the length of the old needles

• Give hibiscus a haircut, then feed with hibiscus food to encourage lush growth

• Gradually move potted hibiscus into more light

• Fig trees, Red Tip Photenias, or shape hibiscus

• Leggy perennials

• Ornamental grasses to new shoots

• DO NOT remove leaves from daffodils and jonquils until AFTER they yellow

• Remove all dead blooms from bulbs

• Pinch off tips of sweet pea seedlings and mums when they are 4” tall

• End of month pinch back growing tips of houseplants that have become rangy and to promote branching and fullness

• Cut branches from early spring flowering bushes for forcing

• Winterkilled leaves from plants around water gardens before and when new growth appears and compost trimmings

• Wildflower areas in dry months

• Water lawn well if you want it to spread faster to fill in dead areas

• Observe areas of poor drainage, fill in low spots or create a channel for drainage

PEST CONTROL

• Fruit trees: Fruit tree spray, Captan

• Worms and caterpillars: Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), Dipel, Thuricide

• Pillbugs, snails, slugs: DE/garlic spray, beer traps, rotenone/pyrethrum spray

• Aphids: soap and water of garlic spray, release of ladybugs, insecticidal soap, Triple Action

• Flower thrips on bellfower, daylily and peony flowers, remove and discard infected flowers (do not put in compost pile!)

• Bagworms on evergreens, remove bags and discard

• Leaf-streak on daylilies, remove and discard infected leaves (do not put in compost pile!)

• Fungus: Black spot, powdery mildew, bacterial leaf spot: baking soda (1 ½ tablespoons and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil per gallon of water),
Immunox Plus

• Gray mold on foliage of bulbs

• Weeds – Early March: pre-emergent herbicide, Balan, HY Crabgrass Control

• Handpull winter annuals such as henbit and common chickweed

• Weed your flowerbeds making sure not to pull any desirable plants

• Remove weeds before they have a chance to flower and go to seed

ODD JOBS

• Plan flowerbeds, gardens and herb gardens in your journal

• Note in your journal the placement of houseplants when they will go outside to determine where to plant your annuals, perennials and shrubs

• Soil test

• Repair damaged areas of the lawn (dethatch, rake or aerate) prior to fertilizing

• Turn the compost pile, add any coarse mulch removed from the garden

• Use completed compost for bed preparation-use partially completed compost as a top-dressing mulch or return to compost pile

• Mulch all bare soil

• Check mulch underneath shrubs, add more if needed

• Remove mulch gradually from flowerbeds. This will help acclimate the plants with the temperature changes and help with weed
prevention.

• Remove winter coverings from roses when forsythia is in full bloom (still watch weather for cool nights)

• Finish your winter cleanup, including floating debris from the surface of water gardens

• Repair any damaged fencing, arbors or trellis work