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As the spring planting
season kicks into full gear this weekend, I’d like to share a couple quick
but timely tips with you!
1.) By this weekend, you
should know what’s dead and what’s not, resulting from that hard freeze and
kill back we had earlier. Go ahead and prune off dead wood, dead tips, dead
branches. This gets rid of the dead stuff, but also helps to stimulate new
growth down below. After this weekend, all deadwood should have been
removed.
2.) Get rid of chickweed
and henbit before it flowers and goes to seed by simply pulling, raking or
scooping it up.
3.) Watch your mugho
pines for pine sawflies. They are needle eaters and can do a real number on
mughos. If you find them, smash them with your hand, or blow them off the
plant with a strong stream of water. Same goes for the Eastern tent
caterpillars. Smash the nest, knock it out with a stick, or blow it out
with a strong stream of water.
4.) Don’t let sucker
growth get ahead of you. A quick shot of “Sucker Stopper” NOW, will stop
those suckers for the rest of the season!
5.) Let the foliage on
those spring bulbs stay green as long as you can - at least 6-8 weeks after
flowering. Then you can remove the old foliage for the season. If you
didn’t feed the bulbs earlier, give them a light shot of bulb food.
6.) If you have tropical
plants indoors and are ready to bring them outside for the summer, place
them in a shady spot for the first week. Then work them out into the sun.
Placing an indoor plant from the house directly into the sun will cause the
leaves to scorch. So be careful.
7.) And last but not
least, this is Mother’s Day weekend. And as I say every year, you can’t
beat a gift for the garden for mom. Knock Out roses, flowering lilacs and
hydrangeas, hanging baskets, herb planters, colorful flower planters - these
really are the gifts that mom’s truly enjoy. |
