Gardening This Weekend: January 31, 2019
We’re just about to head out onto the racecourse for another year. Let’s look at the first stops on our gardening journey. Some of these will be things you’ll want to get done as soon as you can.
PLANT
• Finish transplanting any established trees and shrubs that need to be relocated. This must be done before they start leafing out in the spring.
• Bare-rooted and balled-and-burlapped shade and fruit trees. (Tune in my program this Sunday on WBAP 820AM from 8 until 10 a.m. to hear state fruit and pecan specialist Dr. George Ray McEachern with TAMU talk about home orchards.)
• Onions in North Texas as soon as you can. Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and Irish potatoes in southern half of the state.
• Cold-tolerant annuals such as larkspurs, sweet alyssum, English daisies, wallflowers, ornamental Swiss chard, stocks and others.
• Finish transplanting any established trees and shrubs that need to be relocated. This must be done before they start leafing out in the spring.
PRUNE
• Roses-of-Sharon, crape myrtles, trumpetcreepers and other woody, summer-blooming plants as needed to shape. Never “top” a crape myrtle for any reason. It is never a good idea.
• Evergreen shrubs as needed to reshape. If you’re having to prune them repeatedly, consider replacing them with something more compact.
• Peach and plum trees to remove strongly vertical shoots and encourage spreading habit.
• Grapes to remove 80 percent or more of cane growth.
• Bush roses by 50 percent, with each cut made just above a bud facing out from the center of the plant. Be certain your plants are not infected with rose rosette virus. See my website for details.
• Autumn sage (Salvia greggii) by half to keep plants from becoming lanky and unattractive.
FERTILIZE
• Winter annuals with water-soluble, high-nitrogen fertilizer to encourage vigorous growth, blooms.
• Cool-season grasses (rye and fescue) to promote vigorous growth in warming spells of late winter. Use high-nitrogen or all-nitrogen food, with a large portion of that nitrogen in slow-release form.
• Asparagus with all-nitrogen fertilizer. In this one case, ammonium sulfate (21-0-0) is good.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• Broadleafed (non-grassy) weeds can be treated with appropriate broadleafed herbicide. Read and follow label directions carefully. Pump sprayers allow for more precise applications.
• Horticultural (dormant) oil spray to reduce populations of scales and overwintering insects.
• Have frost cloth handy to cover annual flowers and vegetables, also flowering shrubs. You never know when extreme cold or a late frost or freeze might blow in.