May

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Spring Advice

March, April, May

March

- Indoors you can seed lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower,  dahlias, zinnias, dahlias and marigolds. 

-Start your warm loving crops like eggplant, tomatoes and peppers indoors under lights.

-When temperatures remain above 50 degrees treat your lawn and beds with a systemic pre-emergent weed control product such as DuraTurf.  This will greatly reduce the need for hand weeding during summer.  Many of these products will last for 2 -4 months.

-Prune away dead or damaged wood from your plants.  Do NOT prune plants that flower in spring as you will be removing the new buds.

-Spray with dormant oil spray in mid-March to control scale.

-Remove all tree wrap before the end of March.  This prevents the harboring of harmful bugs.

-Gather up and tie your ornamental grasses and cut them with a bread knife to about 4 inches above ground level. 

April

-Remove tree wraps.  Leaving them on will create an excellent ecosystem for insects and disease.

-Bait now for slugs.  Remove dead plant material from your beds and sprinkle bait around newly planted annuals and perennials.  Debris left on the ground provides a safe haven for slugs, earwigs, and millipedes.

-Fertilize your lawn before one of our spring rain showers and let the rain carry the chemical into the soil.

Mid-Late April

-When you start to see active growth on your rosebushes, fertilize them with a rose specific fertilizer according to the label.

-To reduce the risk of rose diseases such as powdery mildew and black spot, remove infected leaves and spray the rest with fungicide.  Alternate each year with a different fungicide to prevent it from losing effectiveness.

-Fertilize your perennials with a 5-10-5 fertilizer (or something similar).  We recomend Osmacote.

-Treat weeds early by applying weed control as soon as they begin to emerge.

-Start planting your cold crop vegetable garden.  This includes broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and brussel sprouts.  Plant strawberries now.

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Throughout the month of May be sure to use a root boosting fertilizer (high middle number) when planting new plants or relocating old ones.   

Early May

-Plant your perennials, summer flowering bulbs, pansies and violas.  Be sure to slowly acclimate ("harden") your plants before putting them in the ground.

-Start from seed your corn, pumpkins, snap peas, summer and winter squash.

-Now is a great time to hedge and prune your non-blooming evergreen shrubs.  A healthy pruning prevents leggy and straggly growth and encourages the constant new growth of foliage.

-Don't hesitate to prune off larger branches if you want to change the overall shape of your conifers.  Do this before the new growth has a chance to develop.

Mid May

-Now is a safe time to plant your annual flowers.  Also, dahlia tubers, gladiola corms and perennials.

-Plant cucumbers, pumpkins, basil and other herbs, peppers, and tomatoes. 

-Once your azaleas and rhododendrons have finished blooming be sure to remove the spent blooms from the bush.  Then fertilize them with an acidic fertilizer.  

-As it starts go get very warm, be sure to give lots of care to your hanging baskets.  Water every day and keep the flowers blooming vigorously with a fertilizer with a high first and last number.