Spring

�2003 Judith Grover
writer, editor, about, clips, r�sum�, contact

ery few things are as welcome after the end of this very cold and dreary winter as the sight of budding trees and blooming flowers. If the dark days of this past snowy season have you feeling a bit under the weather, it�s time to rejoice! The warm-weather months are just around the corner and it�s now time to start prepping for your lawn and garden for 2003. These tips will remind you of the most appropriate time for chores and whether you�re ready or not, it�s time to spring into step and get out those gardening gloves.

March is the time to get going on early chores and planning. For starters, begin thinking about where to plant any new trees, shrubs and flowers. As Craig Localio, manager of Riverside Nursery in Oakland, New Jersey, says, it�s important to think long and hard about such factors as exposure to sun and wind, the distance from a water source, and sometimes most importantly, whether you�re up for the challenge. Too many of us simply sow plants in a bad area that doesn�t, say, get enough light�or, worse, yet, neglect to water them! It�s time to put up or shut up as we take on the challenge of making the grass greener on our own sides of the fence.

According to Craig Okken, manager of Strawberry Blossom Home and Garden Center in Wayne, New Jersey, March is also the time to begin digging beds in preparation for spring planting. �As soon as you can get out there and the ground isn�t too frozen anymore, begin carefully removing winter mulches from planting beds,� he says. A word to the wise: If it�s green, wait it out for a few weeks to see what�s coming up. While not much will be sprouting in March, one warm spell can start the ball rolling on emergent bulbs or re-seeded annuals. You don�t want to inadvertently get rid of anything you�d like to see in the spring. According to the experts at the New York Botanical Garden, when working your beds, you should add compost in four to six inch layers and work into planting bed soil.

Now�s also the prime time to get those lawns ready to dazzle the neighborhood. If your lawn is in pretty good shape, you can begin by simply raking it and fertilizing it, making sure to include a pre-emergent crabgrass remover to prevent the dastardly weed. As Okken explains, �Crabgrass is very difficult to get rid of once it comes up. There is a summer crabiside that does essentially the same thing as a weed control [by being absorbed into the leaves], but it is not always as effective.� He cautions, �If you don�t have control of your crabgrass by the middle/end of May, you�re probably not going to have control of it.�

If your lawn needs a little more work, de-thatch it to get the grass stems out from the bottom and fill in the low spots with soil. Most lawns need to be thatched�if not every year�then every few years. You can go ahead and plant seeds in patches or over-seed the entire lawn to fill in the bare spots in Late April/May. Once it gets too hot, you�re not going to have much luck.

If you�re planning any major planting, make sure you test for soil types and pH levels. �The best time to have the soil tested is as soon as you can dig,� says Okken. �You can buy a home-test for pH levels, which are accurate but not as accurate as say, bringing it the Rutgers Extension� They tell you to take six different spots in your lawn, or from the area you want to plant. You bring the samples in and they can give you a run-down of everything in your soil.�

March is also the time to get out your sheers. But be careful, Okken, warns, �It�s impossible to tell you exactly what to prune when. Everything is different.� It�s a good time to prune all plant material to remove any diseased, dead, weak or crossing branches. Later in the spring, �there are a lot of shrubs you want to prune right after they bloom, like rhododendrons and azaleas,� Okken says. If you look at plants like rhododendrons now, the flower buds are already set. Pruning them means cutting off all your flowers for the season. The rule of thumb: Anything that flowers in the Spring, for the most part, you want to prune when the flowers have died off. Okken says that Late Fall to Mid-Winter pruning is the best for a lot of your deciduous trees. Evergreens such as conifers should be pruned in June and the early summer

Go ahead and cut back your ornamental grasses to new shoots early in the season. Says Localio, �Some people leave the grass up in the winter, it�s brown but it looks kind of nice. And then what they do is cut it right to the ground in the very Early Spring like March. The other option is if you don�t like the brown, you cut it back in October/November. But it�s recommended that you divide them in the Spring.� March is also time to fertilize deciduous, broad-leaved and needle-leaved evergreen trees and shrubs if they weren�t fed in the fall and apply fertilizer to roses as new growth begins. And finally, fertilize and lime your vegetable garden if the thought of Late Summer salads whet your appetite.

Come April, you can go ahead and plant deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs, weather and soil conditions permitting. If you�re taking a bite into vegetable gardening, you can start seeds indoors now for summer crops. However, if the soil is workable, you can go ahead and sow seeds of all your �cold-crops��hardier vegetables such as peas, carrots, radishes, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli and lettuce. Softer items like tomatoes and peppers should be started indoors.

When the weather gets a bit warmer, you�ll want to �harden off� the vegetables you started indoors. As Okken explains, �When a plant is in a colder area, it actually creates a thicker skin, so if you slowly bring it out, it�ll do that more evenly and it�ll be a stronger plant. You can also build a �cold-frame,� using items such as bales of hay. Make a square of the hay, placing your plants inside. Put a glass or plastic cover over them and during the day, you can open them up a little bit to let ventilation through� Cover them back up at night to keep a warmer temperature, like a greenhouse effect.... So you�re acclimating your plants more gradually instead of going from 75-degree warmth in your house to the 50s at the night.�

According to Localio, you can sow seeds of hardy annuals into your garden at this time, as well. He says cool-season annuals work well in the early spring. �If you can�t wait for that splash of color, early annuals such as pansies like it very cool and they�ll take freezing temperatures. They�ve become very popular in the last few years in the Early Spring just as mums are the thing for the Late Fall.� But he reminds us that items such as pansies don�t like warm weather, so they�ll peter out as Spring goes on. Localio says you can continue to plant and transplant perennials, much hardier than their annual counterparts, in Early April.