Gardening This Weekend: March 7, 2024
Here are this weekend’s prime goals. See how many you can check off.
PLANT
• Trees, shrubs, vines, and groundcovers while supplies are at their best. Shop on Thursdays and Fridays. That week’s shipments will have arrived, yet the weekend crowds won’t have been in yet.
• South Texas: St. Augustine, bermuda and zoysia sod. If you can wait a few weeks, that’s even better. Wait in North Central Texas until late March or April to plant sod if possible.
• In South, and South Central, Texas: Warm-season vegetables. Most successful types include bush beans, crookneck and zucchini squash, small and medium-sized tomatoes (large-fruiting types don’t set fruit well in Texas heat), peppers, and for large gardens, corn.
• You can begin to plant these same crops in Central and North Central Texas if you’re willing to assume some risk from late frosts. Keep frost cloth on hand to protect them. Wait to plant okra, sweet potatoes, and southern peas until it turns warmer in mid- or late April.
• In South, and South Central, Texas, and (with the same warnings) in North Central Texas up to the Red River: Warm-season annuals including marigolds, zinnias, cosmos, geraniums, coleus, and wax begonias. Wait for warmer soils to plant vincas, lantanas, caladiums, moss rose, and copper plants.
PRUNE
• Start mowing turf at recommended height for type of grass that you’re growing. Frequent mowing at this time of year will discourage and kill vigorous early spring weeds.
• Spring-flowering shrubs and vines including flowering quince, camellias, bridal wreath, forsythia, wisterias, and Carolina jessamine, among others immediately after they finish blooming. Avoid shearing into formal shapes.
FERTILIZE
• Lawns in South Texas with high-nitrogen or all-nitrogen plant food. Upwards of half of that nitrogen should be in slow-release form. Wait to feed turf in Central and North Texas until April 1.
• Unless a recent soil test shows otherwise, that same high-N or all-N fertilizer will be best for landscape plants and even flowers and vegetables.
• Cool-season annual color with high-nitrogen, water-soluble food every couple of weeks.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• Aphids congregate on tender new growth of many types of plants. Colors will vary, but all will have pear-shaped bodies and twin “exhaust pipes” on either side. They are easily controlled with almost any organic or inorganic insecticide. You may even be able to wash them off with a hard stream of water.
• Apply pre-emergent herbicide granules (Halts, Dimension, or Balan) to prevent crabgrass and grassburs in Hill Country, North East, Central and North Central Texas lawns. Wait 10-15 days in the Panhandle.
• Chickweed, dandelions, clover, dichondra and dollarweed can be controlled with application of broadleafed weedkiller (containing 2,4-D). Read and follow label directions carefully for best results. Be patient – these products may take a week or two to show effects and you may have to treat more than one time for tenacious weeds. Small droplets that coat the weeds’ leaves are most effective.