Gardening This Weekend: March 7, 2019
It’s time to apply pre-emergent granules to lawns over most of the state!
I’m just going to lead with that important part of this weekend’s activity. If you’re between Huntsville/College Station/San Antonio and the Red River it’s time to apply Dimension, Halts or Balan to prevent germination of crabgrass and grassburs. North of that line, your time will come in about 10 days.
Repeat the treatment 90 days later as a “booster shot” because of Texas’ long summer growing season.
I suggest mowing your lawn first, then applying the granules. Water moderately to soak the granules into the surface of the soil.
Note: If you have a lawn service company doing this work for you, they may have a slightly different schedule. Trust them, knowing that they can’t get to all of their customers at the same time. They also have access to different materials.
PLANT
• Warm-season vegetables in South Texas. Finish planting leaf and root vegetables in the northern 75 percent of the state.
• Spring-flowering trees, shrubs and vines while nurseries have their best supplies. They either have received fresh shipments in the past couple of days or they had their plants under cover during the cold. Protect all nursery stock from highway winds by wrapping them or carrying them in a closed trailer. You simply cannot drive slowly enough.
• Cool-season annual color, including stocks, English daisies, petunias, wallflowers, larkspurs and ornamental Swiss chard. It’s still a bit early (cold soils) for hot weather annuals except in Deep South Texas.
PRUNE
• Remove any twigs or branches that were obviously killed by the hard freezes earlier this week. However, in many cases it’s better to wait to see the extent of any damage.
• Scalp lawn now if you haven’t done so already. That will help you eliminate many of the rank weeds.
• Last call for winter pruning. This week’s cold has given you an additional few days.
FERTILIZE
• Annual color with high-nitrogen, water-soluble plant food to promote vigorous growth and bloom.
• Trees, shrubs and groundcovers with all-nitrogen fertilizer such as you’ll use on your lawn in a few weeks to promote vigorous new growth this spring.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• Broadleafed weedkiller spray (containing 2,4-D) can be applied to kill existing non-grassy weeds such as clover, dandelions, chickweed and plantain. Read and follow label directions carefully for best results.
• Aphids on tender new growth. Control with almost any type of organic or inorganic insecticide. In some cases you can also rinse them off the plants with a hard stream of water.