Gardening This Weekend: March 3, 2022
Set a little time aside over the next several days. These are things you’ll want to get done.
PLANT
• Warm-season vegetables in South Texas. Finish planting leaf and root vegetables in Central and North Texas. Wait another week or so in the northern Panhandle.
• Spring-flowering trees, shrubs and vines as nurseries stock up. 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.
• Spring-flowering perennials as nurseries offer potted transplants.
PRUNE
• Remove any twigs or branches that were killed by the hard freezes this winter or even last year.
• Scalp lawn by dropping mower blade one notch. That will help you eliminate many of the rank weeds. It will help your lawn green up more quickly as it allows the sun’s rays to soak into the ground.
• Last call for winter pruning in northern half of the state. Once plants have broken bud and started growing pruning is much harder on them.
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
It’s time to apply pre-emergent granules to lawns over the southern half of the state!
it’s time to apply Dimension, Halts or Balan to prevent germination of crabgrass and grassburs in the southern half of Texas. For Central and North Central Texas to the Red River aim for March 5-15. In the Panhandle, March 20-30.
These materials are effective for about 100 days. As a result, repeat the treatment 90 days later as a “booster shot” because of Texas’ long summer growing season. You do not have to use the same material for the second treatment.
I suggest mowing your lawn first, then applying the granules. Water moderately to soak the granules into the surface of the soil.
Note: You might want to buy product for your second treatment now. Many stores sell out and do not restock for that round. Store it dry and it will be fine.
Another 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.
• 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.