Contributed by Master
Gardener Vicki Gustafson
Some gardeners are approaching a busy time of year, so if you didn’t clean, sharpen and ready your tools this past winter — do so now. As weather permits, try and fit in the following:
Begin general cleanup of your lawns and garden beds now, but don’t be too anxious to remove protective mulch, especially from your roses. Cut down perennials that were left standing over the winter — except slow starters like mums and lavender — wait until you see new growth on these and then cut back.
This one I learned from National Gardening Association, www.garden.org. You can sprinkle seeds of cool-season flowers directly onto the snow in your garden bed right now. As the snow melts, the seeds are hydrated and ready to sprout as early as absolutely possible. Just remember where you seeded them so you don’t pull them as weeds this spring. These include larkspur, cosmos, poppy, cleome and even spinach or lettuce.
Frost tolerant bedding plants such as pansies can be planted outdoors as they become available.
If you have room, start your cannas, dahlias and elephant ears — warm season bulbs and tuberous roots — indoors in pots. You’ll have a jump on the growing season by the time the soil warms enough for transplanting.
March is a good month for pruning. Pruning is used for maintaining the health of the plant and to shape and rejuvenate.
But wait to prune flowering shrubs such as lilacs and weigela until after they flower, or you may be pruning off this seasons flower buds.
Prune fruit trees, grapes and brambles (raspberries, blackberries) early in the month before buds start to swell. Remove any dead or diseased wood.
Prune shade trees if necessary. Elms and oaks should be pruned only during the dormant season.
You can spray fruit trees with dormant oil to provide insect control. This should only be applied when the temperature will stay above freezing for 24 hours straight.
Trees and shrubs can be planted as they become available. Best suited for spring planting/transplanting rather than in the fall are: butterfly bush, dogwood, rose of sharon, black gum, redbud, magnolia, birch, tulip poplar and hawthorn, to name a few.
If you left your ornamental grasses standing over the winter, they should be cut to within a few inches of the ground now.
Try and force early flowering shrubs like forsythia, witch hazel, early cherry trees and deciduous (drops leaves in fall) rhododendrons. Prune stems with swelling buds, split or crush the stem ends and place in flower vase with warm water and flower preserver if you have any. Within a week or, two, you’ll have flowers — or at the very least, some nice spring greenery.
