Gardening for this Weekend — February 11, 2016
You can grow Irish potatoes just like these. It all starts now.
Your critical gardening activities this week:
Cabbage and kale transplants are ready to go into the garden now.
• Plant cole crops (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale) from transplants.
• Plant Irish potatoes into well-draining soils. Cut “seed” potatoes from nursery into two or three pieces. Lay them on newspapers for a couple of days to dry and callous before planting.
• Plant frost-tolerant annual color from potted nursery transplants.
• Finish transplanting established trees, shrubs while they are still dormant.
• Set out bare-rooted fruit and pecan trees, blackberry transplants and grape vines. Buy varieties recommended for your area.
• Finish pruning established peach and plum trees into bowl-shaped forms prior to bud swell. (Hurry, South Texas!)
Grapes require heavy supports and substantial winter pruning.
• Prune grape vines to remove 80 to 85 percent of cane growth.
• Finish pruning shade trees, summer-flowering shrubs and vines, evergreens soon. (Do not “top” crape myrtles for any reason!)
• Fertilize ryegrass and fescue turf.
• Apply all-nitrogen fertilizer to asparagus beds to promote vigorous shoot growth.
• Apply broadleafed weedkiller (containing 2,4-D) if you want to eliminate clover, dandelions, henbit, chickweed and other non-grassy weeds. There is no way to eliminate grassy weeds in your lawn – mark the calendar to apply a pre-emergent herbicide in the first week of September for next year.