This is a fun time of year! We can almost feel spring in the air as the days get longer and the crocus, daffodils, and snowdrops all pop from the ground to unveil their colorful and magical flowers. We have been blessed with some moisture the last few weeks and are more than ready to welcome more rain. The early bird gardeners are already seeing growth in their cool season veggies like lettuce, kale, cabbage and swiss chard. There is still time to plant the cool season veggies like seed potatoes, onion sets or plants along with broccoli, the green leafy veggies and the root crops like carrots, beets, and radish. These cool season crops will do better and yield more harvest the quicker you plant them. If you wait too long these cool season crops will have to battle our hot summer heat and will produce less fresh produce to enjoy at your table and to share with family and friends. Growing up, we always said to plant these cool season crops from Valentine’s Day to St Patrick’s Day for best results. You can plant the cool season crops all the way into early April but the sooner you plant them the more produce you will get. This is also the stretch run for planting bare root strawberries, grapes, blackberries, raspberries, and the many other fruits and berry crops. You will still be able to plant those crops later if you invest in container grown plants, but the window for bare root planting is closing over the next couple of weeks.
We still have about a month until our last average frost date so we all need to exercise patience on the warm season veggies and annual color crops. Unless you have your own greenhouse, are prepared to go to extreme measures to provide frost protection to your early crops, plant in containers you can bring in on cool days or believe we are in for a repeat of last year when everything was over 4 weeks early and the early gardening “Sooners” actually got away with their very early plantings; practice patience.
We now have an extra hour of daylight every evening after the “spring forward” clock movement this past weekend so you can satisfy your planting instincts by preparing the soil in your existing flowerbeds, preparing new flowerbeds or gardens, planting perennials, shrubs and trees. We have lost or damaged many trees and shrubs across our state the last few years between the ice storms, hard winter freezes, extreme summer heat and the drought of the last couple of years. This is a good time to select areas where you want to add new trees or shrubs to your property and to start planting.
Gardeners always have to think about and plan for the future. You needed to plan and plant daffodils and tulips last fall to get the uplifting and inspirational flowers of early spring. You need to plan and plant potatoes, onions and strawberries now to enjoy their fresh food this spring and summer. You need to plan and plant young trees now to really enjoy them in 5, 10 or 50 years. Like humans, trees come in all shapes; short, tall, skinny, stocky, some do best alone and others in groups. Think about and envision what trees you want and visit with your nurseryman to select the right trees to frame and paint your property.
Don’t forget to apply your pre-emergent herbicides or weed and feed crabgrass killer right away over your lawn. The sooner you apply these products now, the more of the summer weed population they can kill before they ever come up.
Rodd's Seeds of Wisdom 