Gardening This Weekend: February 7, 2019

There’s certainly plenty to do this time of year. In the hopes that the weather will allow you to get out into your gardens, here are this weekend’s tasks.

PLANT
• 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.
• Cole crops (cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower) and Irish potatoes– you’re coming into the “primest” time for much of Texas.
• 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. Watch carefully for signs of rose rosette virus, especially near the epicenter of its outbreak in DFW. I maintain information on RRV on the home page of my website.
• Peach and plum trees, grape vines immediately. New growth is starting to pop, especially in South Texas.
• Do not top crape myrtles – there is no justifiable reason (including reducing height – they’ll just grow back). See related story this issue.

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

 

ON THE LOOKOUT
• 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.
• Follow Texas A&M guidelines for spraying fruit crops to prevent entry of insects, especially into peaches and plums. First spray is made when petals are showing color, but before flowers have actually started to open. That time is very near at hand.