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Spring has sprung, and along with the incessant spring rains (and occasional snows) come hungry plants getting ramped up for their marathon growth spurt. Your plants need just a little love to help them shine for their summer performance! Here are some of the nursery’s favorite products and maintenance tips for a healthy and glorious season.
For your newborns (any plants transplanted within the past year), it helps to stimulate their feeder roots with Root Starter. Ideally, they should get three applications during their first season in-ground, and one final shot the following spring. David recommends feeding them on the three Flag Days: Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day. This gives your plants an added boost during our short growing season. You can use the same timing for fertilizing lawns and established plants. Milorganite or 16-16-8 Morgro work wonderfully for this. Soil Pep, Bark and Steer, or a poultry-based fertilizer will perform well for flowering plants. To prevent insect infestations on your flowering shrubs, knock them out with Rose and Flower Food, which contains a systemic insecticide to keep the aphids and other pests at bay at the same time it fertilizes. Treat your lawns and flower beds with Gypsum. This inexpensive treatment will permeate clay, neutralize salts, and allow water and nutrients to reach the roots of the plant. I recommend using it along walkways and roadways that were salted over the winter. Maintain a minimum 2 foot diameter- wide tree well around all of your trees, especially those surrounded by lawn. Tree wells allow the tree to receive all of the available water and nutrients, as well as prevent irreversible damage caused by weed whippers. Top dress the tree well with Soil Pep. Top dress your lawn and flower beds with Soil Pep, bark, or Bark and Steer. All of these woody organic products are an effective composter, weed deterrent, and moisture retainer. Follow these springtime tips and your garden will thrive and give you many happy returns, for seasons to come. Plants, on your marks!
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As you know evergreens can suffer over the winter from the sun reflecting off the snow as well as 'dry cold'. It is an excellent idea to spray an anti- transpirant like wilt-pruf right now to protect the needles from cold, dry, burning elements! It is available in ready to use form as well as a highly concentrated form you mix with water 10:1! The beginning of November and it's time to put Summer and fall away l The trees and shrubs get healed in and summer garden supplies are put away the shop transforms into chaos and eventually becomes a Christmas Wonderland! Part of the staff heads north for the Christmas tree harvest and gathering boughs for making wreaths & garland! It's quite exciting to watch the annual transition. A miracle to change a space so drastically! You can cut back your perennials now, but hold on...don't cut back too far! A little bit of foliage left behind goes a long way in protecting against frost damage. You can leave dried flowers, ornamental grasses and seed heads that look good to provide food for the birds through the winter. Pull out annuals and clean up leaves and weeds in the bed.
Apply a fertilizer, such as Milorganite to give your lawn a great head start next Spring. Mow your lawn one last time before the winter sets in. Either rake your leaves off the lawn or if you don't have a lot of leaves you can mow over them several times to shred them and start the decaying process. If left on without being shredded they can suffocate your lawn.
Now is a great time to plant trees & shrubs. Roots grow well into November before the ground freezes solid. It is also a good time to take advantage of fall sale prices on mountain acclimated plants! Come on in to purchase premium tulip, daffodil and other bulbs...large & firm make for the best flowers. We have a big selection !!!! You can cut back your perennials now, but hold on...don't cut back too far! A little bit of foliage left behind goes a long way in protecting against frost damage. Give your plants a dose of Milorganite or compost, and for as little weeding as possible next spring, apply a pre-emergent to your beds.
Hard to believe another spring has ‘blown’ by… lots of wind, all the beautiful weather – sunny days and cloudy nights that kept the frost at bay ‘til the middle of June – then we had a few days of covering and worrying!
A Little Summer Thought: Your Garden is like a movie and you are the casting director. It is your job to know what your movie is about – soil conditions, sun, water, what you are planning to do in the yard, etc. and make the right casting choices to best represent the movie and your theme – Hardscape, flowers, trees, shrubs – color, textures. |
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Ann Barrett Owner Archives
May 2015
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