Gardening This Weekend: April 9, 2020
Things are really moving into the fast lane right now, and I’ve made a list of what you’ll want to accomplish. Check through what I’ve assembled and see if any of it applies. Keep in mind that we’re expecting really cool weather over the weekend and into next week. Adjust as needed.
PLANT
• Nursery stock. Buy now, while supplies are at their best. Many nurseries offer curbside pick-up or even delivery. Let them do the choosing for you. Buy from a local independent garden center. They’ll know which plants are best.
• Warm-season vegetables immediately, including tomatoes, peppers, green beans, squash, cucumbers and corn.
• Warm-season annual color plants. Some of the best and most popular: marigolds, zinnias, cosmos, wax begonias, coleus, angelonias, purple fountaingrass and pentas.
• Wait for warmer weather to plant copper plants, firebush, caladiums, Gold Star Esperanza, periwinkles and lantanas. (OK to plant now in Deep South Texas.)
• New turf from sod or plugs. (Wait to plant bermuda from seed for another couple of weeks.)
PRUNE
• Remove cold-damaged portions of crape myrtles, even if it involves cutting the dead tops completely to the ground and starting over. See related story this issue.
• Spring-flowering shrubs and vines as soon as they have finished blooming.
• Trim erratic new growth off shrubs.
• Reshape houseplants you have brought outside for the summer.
FERTILIZE
• Landscape and garden plants and turf with high-nitrogen or all-nitrogen plant food (Upwards of half of the nitrogen in encapsulated or coated, slow-release form).
• Hanging baskets and container plants with high-nitrogen, water-soluble food.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• Aphids on tender new growth. Treat with almost any general-purpose insecticide, or wash off with a hard stream of water.
• Dandelions, dichondra, clover and other non-grassy weeds with a broadleafed weedkiller spray.
• Powdery mildew and black spot with labeled fungicides.
• Take all root rot in St. Augustine with Azoxystrobin. See related story this issue.