Most gardeners are now in high gear now. Your flower beds are all cleaned up, (aren’t they?) the pre-emergence weed control, Preen or something similar, has been applied to the areas that are not going to be planted soon with all the plants to provide color for the next 5 months. [make your gardening easier by applying some kind of weed preventer] Now that’s a good investment, just think, you can plant your annuals and perennials and they’ll be providing color for your yard well into September. A bouquet of flowers is gone in a week, when you go out to dinner, well that is gone in a matter of hours, but plants in your yard provide enjoyment for months and with trees and shrubs beauty for decades. Plants in your yard are not an expense but an investment in your property that have proven 1) to yield a return on your property value and 2) provide “wellness” through exercise, 3) improvement to the environment and positive thoughts- improvement to our mental state. Gardening can cause some frustration when things don’t go right and that is what we try to help you with here. New growth is well under way but we will be vulnerable to a frost until about the middle of the month.
PRUNING & SPRING CLEAN UP- Last winter was not that harsh here in Ohio but some plants have been damaged. Some shrubs and evergreens have dieback and the foliage “burned”. It is a good time to begin pruning back any damage. Pruning back to live green wood and viable buds will be necessary to know where growth will begin.
LAWN AREAS- Fertilizer should have been applied back in March but it can still be done. Feeding the lawn with a high nitrogen fertilizer, one with a high first number, is one of the best ways to combat weed populations in your turf. Once the crabgrass seed begins to grow, which will be early May this year, crabgrass preemergence applications will not be effective. Mother Nature has helped our soils by the freezing and thawing process all winter which “opens” up the soil. Try to avoid walking or riding your mower on the lawn when the soils are wet so compaction does not occur. When compaction occurs to our soils it makes it difficult for grass roots to penetrate heavy clay soils.
INSECT PROBLEMS- Be on the lookout for tent caterpillars in flowering and fruit trees, pine saw flies in evergreens and borers in fruit trees. If you have bag worm bags left on any plants from last year this is a good time to remove them before the eggs hatch and they begin devouring your landscape plantings. Put the “bags” in a baggie and to the trash can with them.
TREE & SHRUB DISEASES- If you have problems with your flowering crab apple trees dropping leaves in late summer this is the time of year to control Apple Scab, a fungal disease, with Bonide’s Fruit Tree Spray. To prevent foliar diseases on roses it is important to begin spraying just as new leaves begin to form. Follow label instructions regarding the time to begin spraying and how often to spray.
Meadow View Growers
New Carlisle, OH
