Gardening This Weekend: February 11, 2021

This week’s cold weather doesn’t stop our need to get these tasks performed as soon as we can. Spring is knocking on the garden gate. For details on coping with the current cold, see that story in this issue.

PLANT
Fruit and pecan trees and bare-rooted roses.
Finish digging and transplanting trees and shrubs.
Frost-tolerant annuals: petunias, stocks, English daisies, larkspurs, sweet alyssum. It’s fine to wait until this current really cold weather abates.
Cole crops (cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower) and Irish potatoes– this is the best time to plant them across much of our state. You may want to wait until next week.

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PRUNE
Evergreen shrubs as needed to shape. Avoid highly sheared look whenever possible, both to maintain plants’ vigor and to reduce labor you spend in the garden.
Peach and plum trees, grape vines immediately. Buds are starting to swell. Early varieties are, or soon will be, in bloom in South Texas.
Do not top crape myrtles – there is no justifiable reason (including reducing height – they’ll just grow back).
Rose bushes by 50 percent immediately, even if they have started to produce new foliage. If you are in an area infested with rose rosette virus (such as DFW), be sure your plants are not infected. See detailed information on my website. Infected plants must be removed.

FERTILIZE
Rye and fescue turf to stimulate new growth. Use high-nitrogen lawn fertilizer at half the normal rate at this feeding, since permanent lawn is still essentially dormant.
Winter and early spring annual color with high-nitrogen, water-soluble plant food once temperatures warm in next few days.
Liquid root stimulator monthly to newly planted and transplanted trees and shrubs.

ON THE LOOKOUT
Wrap trunks of newly planted oaks and Chinese pistachios to prevent sunscald. Leave wrapped for 18 to 24 months.
Concentrations of aphids on tender new growth. Wash off with hard stream of water or apply general-purpose organic or inorganic insecticide.
Broadleafed weedkiller spray (containing 2,4-D) to eliminate non-grassy weeds in lawn, including clover, dandelions, chickweed, thistles, plantain and others.

Posted by Neil Sperry
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