Master gardener John Hethrington doesn't let a little thing like winter prevent him from working on his 20 different gardens. His advice for all gardeners is this: there's always work to be done.
Here is his list of chores for March to get things started for outdoor garden season:
- Start tuberous begonias and caladiums corms in pots.
- Plant brassicas (the cabbage family) seeds and hardy annuals for late May planting outdoors.
- Start tomatoes, lettuce and other fast growers from seed in late March to early April.
- Make a list of spring chores in the order they should be done, if you haven’t already done so.
- Order summer flowering bulbs. Try www.botanus.com.
- Order/buy seeds for summer planting now!
- Check, repair and sharpen your gardening tools.
- Apply combination dormant oil spray to fruit trees and pest-prone shrubs when the above-freezing weather permits.
- Bring spring indoors. Start forcing branches of spring-flowering shrubs like Forsythia.
- If you can find them, buy narcissus bulbs and grow them in gravel with water
- Prune summer-flowering shrubs and vines.
- When the snow is gone from your garden beds and they are still wet, but before the new leaves emerge,apply triple-19 agricultural fertilizer liberally.
- Plan to plant a few bird-attracting, native berry plants and shrubs, plus pollinator perennials for bees and butterflies.
- When the snow goes, loosen up and dig in packed-down winter mulch and press any perennials that have heaved back into place.
- If there are any students out there who are interested in garden work after school this spring and this summer, please get in touch now. There are lots of jobs available. Contact John Hethrington [email protected]
