Sirhornsalot
**The Official Horn Sports Landscaper and Landscap
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- Nov 6, 2013
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March will be tempting, but you're better off waiting
Welcome to March, one of the most unpredictable months on the calendar. During this month you may see weather than is almost summer-like. And then a week later you have a freeze and sometimes snow. Thats how it goes.
Nonetheless, the retail nurseries out there will put out the spring flowers for sale, tomatoes and other veggies, and they all look tantalizing after being indoors for the past three months. Don’t let yourself be tempted.
The weather itself, nice warm days which are getting longer each day . . . makes us feel that it’s a great time to get out in the garden and get your Spring show on.
My warning is – that potential investment could end in disaster should Old Man Winter decide to make a final showing and freeze all your new spring flowers. At that point, you lose the flowers you purchased and planted and then have to buy and plant all over again.
Without hesitation, I urge you to wait and do your spring planting on or after April 1. In North Texas and points south of here, that is the safe date which means by April 1, we’ve seen our last freeze. This is a good go-by, however, in my lifetime I’ve seen it snow here at least twice on April 1.
I head this column off with this message because everyone deserves to have a successful garden and a great start to Spring, . . . when it gets here.
If we can’t plant, what then can we do to help our landscapes and gardens? The answer is PLENTY.
• Prepare your beds where you will be planting spring flowers. This means breaking up the soil, adding compost or other organic planting mix. You may want to work in a soil supplement, such as Super Phosphate® (Hi Yield) which will facilitate more blooms and longer blooming period for your flowers.
• Clear the beds of weeds, leaves and other debris. Be sure to look before you reach because snakes will be coming out of their hibernation. Give your shrubs their first trim of the season.
• Wait to mulch your beds after you’ve completed your spring planting. If you have a Live Oak(s) in your landscape, it is best to wait until after their annual leaf drop before you mulch. That will last the last three weeks of this month.
• Have your trees trimmed. Doing so will allow more sunlight to your turf and beds. However, we should NOT trim Oak trees from March through June due to risk of Oak Wilt. All other trees can be trimmed.
All of these things should be done and March is a great time to do it, while the temperatures are still comfortable outside.
The Season’s First Mow
During the first half of the month, you want to mow your turf short. Do not scalp the turf, but mow it shorter than usual. Only do this once a year. Mowing short in early March will allow more sunlight to hit the soil surface, heating it up. This causes grass roots to become more active and therefore brings your turf out of dormancy, faster.
A couple of tips for this . . . it is best to mark your sprinkler heads with the small marking flags you can get at one of the box stores. When you mow short, you risk hitting and damaging sprinkler heads since you’re mowing a shorter cut. Avoid the heads and trim around those with a weedeater.
Turn on the sprinklers once you’re done to make sure nothing was damaged and that everything is in working order.
The Live Oak Molt
For at least three weeks in this month, the Live Oak trees (native here) will begin dropping their leaves. The leaves are small but abundant.
Live Oaks are evergreen trees, but this month it sheds the leaves it grew in the last year while simultaneously growing new ones. So the tree is never without leaves.
The leaves, if left alone, can cause numerous issues for your landscape and even your home. It will stunt the growth of your grass. It can be a fire hazard. It can cause damage (by holding moisture) to concrete and lumber and even metal. It also makes great snake habitat now that they’re coming out of their hibernation.
So it is important to be rid of the leaves regularly rather than all at once.
Fertilize the Beds and Trees!
While we wait until April to fertilize our lawns, we can go ahead and fertilize our beds. I recommend Hi Yield’s “Gardener’s Special®” fertilizer. The product comes in different sizes, from large to small. Each one contains a mild but highly beneficial fertilizer, suitable for shrubs and trees.
DO NOT apply lawn fertilizer to your beds. It’s the wrong product for the wrong thing. It will burn the shrubs up because lawn fertilizer has a higher nitrogen content, and it can cause other issues.
You should try to use a time-released granular product, something in the 9-11-9 range. Do not let your pellets touch the stems/trunks of the shrubs and plants. Make sure the granules are at least a couple inches away from that.
Do not let your fertilizer just sit there on the ground. Water it in right after applying.
For best results, apply just before a rain event. Rainwater holds an extra molecules of oxygen (and nitrogen), which in turn allows the plant to absorb more nutrients than it otherwise would with tap water.
Wait to Fertilize the Lawn
Like we talked about at the beginning of this column, we should not be tempted by the warm weather spurts to go out and fertilize our lawns. The purpose of fertilizer is to achieve accelerated growth of the grass. Grass may turn green in March, but it is still not growing due to night time lows in the 40s, 50s, and 60s.
For that reason, wait to apply your first lawn fertilization of the season until April 1 or later. It will result in good growth and create a deep green color.
