Gardening This Weekend: February 16, 2017

You may want to lay in the supplies and get an early start on gardening this weekend. You’re about to hit spring at full stride. Here are the important things to get finished.

PLANT

• Cole crops (cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower) and Irish potatoes– this is the “primest” time for much of Texas.
• Finish digging and transplanting trees and shrubs before buds begin to swell (may be too late in South Texas).
• Fruit and pecan trees and bare-rooted roses.
• Frost-tolerant annuals: petunias, stocks, English daisies, larkspurs, sweet alyssum.

PRUNE

• Rose bushes by 50 percent immediately, even if they have started to produce new foliage.
• Peach and plum trees, grape vines immediately.
• Do not top crape myrtles – there is no justifiable reason (including reducing height – they’ll just grow back).
• Dead or severely damaged growth due to cold winter temperatures.

FERTILIZE

• Rye and fescue turf to stimulate new growth.
• Winter and early spring annual color with high-nitrogen, water-soluble plant food.
• Asparagus with all-nitrogen, fast-release fertilizer such as 21-0-0.
• Liquid root stimulator to newly planted and transplanted trees and shrubs.

 

 

ON THE LOOKOUT

• Broadleafed weedkiller spray to eliminate non-grassy weeds in lawn, including clover, dandelions, chickweed, thistles, plantain and others. Henbit (clover-like with purple flowers) is a weak regrower. Simply mowing your lawn will eliminate it. If it’s the main weed you’re trying to control, there is no need to spray this late.
• Concentrations of aphids on tender new growth. Wash off with hard stream of water or apply general-purpose organic or inorganic insecticide.
• Wrap trunks of newly planted oaks and Chinese pistachios to prevent sunscald. Leave wrapped for 18 to 24 months.