The Root of the Problem
By
Debbie Cook
The robins have cleaned the last of the berries off my hawthorn tree and today my barberry shrubs are filled with little birds cleaning the last of the berries off them, too. Luckily, today was a day off for me and it was a perfect day to work outside. I spent the afternoon cutting down perennials and poking around to see what was going on. My hellebores are about to bloom and I have all kinds of things starting to wake up. How fun!
It’s March; This Sunday the time changes and in less than three weeks it will be the vernal equinox, better known as the first day of spring. All of a sudden there are lots of things to do. I’ll help you make a list. Here’s the March To-Do list.
· If you somehow let the winter slip by without cleaning and sharpening your tools, do it now. Sand and oil your wooden handles. Wipe down the blades of your metal tools, trowels, shovels etc. to remove mud and rust and give them a shot of WD40 or Pam. Sharpen them. Digging with a sharp shovel or using a sharp hoe makes all the difference. Work smarter not harder.
· Don’t forget to spring forward and set your clock one hour ahead on the 8th. Daylight savings time starts early this year.
· Sow outside in the ground now; lettuce, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and onion to name a few. After the middle of the month you can plant peas, radish, leeks and turnips. Potatoes, beets and carrots can be planted at the end of the month. Poppies, alyssum, and sweet peas and lobelia can be planted outside mid month, too.
· Get your grapes pruned. It’s late enough in the season that they will probably bleed. This won’t hurt the plant and it eventually stops, but it makes us very nervous when liquid pours from the cut ends for several days. Other plants, like maple trees, birch and dogwood, are also prone to bleeding.
· The middle of the month is usually a good time to use a pre-emergent on your lawn or other areas where you want to prevent weeds. A pre-emergent will prevent seed, any seed, from germinating. If you want to plant seeds or intentionally let annuals drop seed for reseeding, the pre emergent will stop that, too, so let those plants start growing before you use the pre emergent. It can be used once plants are up and growing without killing them. A pre-emergent is good for crab grass control, annual blue grass, spurge, purslane and other annual weed control.
· You can transplant summer or fall blooming perennials now. These would include plants like daylily, asters, chrysanthemum, black-eyed Susan and hosta.
· Don’t entirely remove mulch from around plants. A rule of thumb is to remove mulch when the buds of the plant begin to swell or when the grass greens up.
· Don’t top trees. No matter what! If you need to have a tree pruned or want to prune it yourself, make sure you know what you’re doing or hire a Certified Arborist. The Extension Office has some great bulletins on pruning that is very inexpensive. Incorrect pruning can ruin a tree for life or in the worst case, even kill it.
· Bare root plants are available this time of year and it’s a great way to plant because you can see the root system and plant it correctly. You’ll mostly find roses and fruit trees but sometimes other trees and shrubs are available. Dig a shallow, wide hole so that the roots have room to be spread out. It’s better to cut them a little shorter than to circle them around in the hole. On trees, the place where the roots begin to flare out from the trunk should be placed at ground level and no deeper. In this part of the country, roses should be planted with the graft about two inches below the ground.
· Houseplants are starting to wake up. Repot them or at least add some new soil to the pot. If they need dividing, now is the time to do that, too.
· It’s a great time to start planting trees, just don’t plant too deep. Make sure the root flare is at ground level. That’s where the roots begin to flare out from the trunk. Trees shouldn’t grow straight up out of the ground like a telephone pole.
· Finally, to brighten the end of winter, take some cuttings of branches like forsythia, plum or cherry, bring them inside and put them in a vase of warm water. They’ll bloom for you in a week or so to brighten your day.
