[Gardening in the Triangle]

tleonard — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:29:24 -0400

N&O Columnist L.A. Jackson provides this month-by-month to-do list for your Triangle garden. Follow his monthly gardening tips on his website Southeast Gardening with L.A. Jackson.

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January

- Keep Christmas poinsettias in bright light (not direct sunlight) and water when the soil surface is dry to the touch. Fertilize lightly with liquid nutrients once a month.

- If you had trouble with aphids, scale, mealy bugs or mites on fruit trees or roses last year, apply a dormant oil when the temperature is forecast to be above 40 degrees (and below 85) for at least 48 hours.

- Fertilize pecan trees with four pounds of 8-8-8 or 10-10-10 per inch of trunk diameter scattered around the drip line of each tree.

- Clear out fallen camellia blooms.

- Turn over the compost pile.

- Plant bare-root roses.

- Plant cold-hardy vegetables such as onion sets and sugar snap peas.

February

- Fertilize fescue lawn at a rate of one pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet.

- Apply a broadleaf herbicide to rid the lawn of clover, chickweed, dandelion and henbit.

- Prune ornamental grasses 6 to 8 inches above the ground. Divide grass clumps and replant.

- Prune summer woody ornamentals such as althea, butterfly bush, crape myrtle, oleander, hydrangea and vitex flower to stimulate springtime branches. Also prune fruit and pecan trees.

- Prune established hybrid tea and bush roses. Prune climbing roses lightly if they are repeats; otherwise, wait until after the spring bloom.

- Cut back wisteria, wild grape, Virginia creeper, Japanese honeysuckle and other invasive vines.

- If you didn't apply a time-release fertilizer around spring-flowering bulbs, add a tablespoon of 8-8-8 or 10-10-10 per square foot of bed after the shoots are 2 to 3 inches tall.

- Break up the soil and add compost, lime and chopped-up leaves.

- If voles and moles have been in your garden, till in liberal amounts of pea gravel or PermaTill.

- Just as new growth begins on liriope, shear the plants to make room for the young shoots.

March

- Rejuvenate vegetable and flower beds by tilling them. Mix in liberal amounts of compost, leaf mold or other decayed organic matter.

- After the threat of hard freezes has passed, replace winter mulch from strawberries, rose bed and perennials.

- As soon as new leaves appear on roses, begin a regular fungicide schedule.

- Apply time-released fertilizer to shrubs, roses and evergreens.

- Prune ornamental berry-producing plants such as holly, nandina and beautyberry before new growth begins.

- Prepare flats of warm-weather annuals indoors.

- Start leaf lettuce, mustard greens, sugar snaps, radishes, spinach, onions, kale and potatoes. Beets, broccoli, cauliflower and Chinese cabbage can be started by the third or fourth week.

- Prune althea, buddleia, vitex, crape myrtle and pomegranate to stimulate more flower production.

- Watch for aphids and cutworms.

- Scrub the birdbath.

April

- Fertilize summer-flowering bulbs that overwintered in the garden when shoots pop out of the soil.

- Deadhead spent pansy blooms and lightly fertilize the plants.

- Thin fruit trees, leaving small, developing fruit only every 4 to 6 inches along the branches.

- Start the summer vegetable garden with tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, green beans and squash.

- Thin cool-season veggies begun from seed last month.

- Move indoor plants back outside after temperatures moderate.

- Prune and fertilize azaleas, camellias, laurel, rhododendron and wisteria after flowers are spent.

May

- Plant Bermuda, centipede, St. Augustine and zoysia. Fertilize established Bermuda and St. Augustine lawns at a rate of one-half to one pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet.

- Plant the bulbs of summer: gladioluses, dahlias, caladiums and cannas. Also plant climbing spinach, hyacinth bean, moonflower, morning glory and black-eyed Susan vines.

- Adjust soil pH for hydrangeas, adding lime for pink blossoms and dried blood meal or aluminum sulfate for blue.

- Plant eggplant, peppers, squash, cucumbers, snap beans, peppers, okra and watermelons.

- Prune dead or diseased limbs on woody ornamentals.

- After foliage fades, divide overcrowded clumps of naturalized spring-flowering bulbs.

- Pinch zinnias, petunias and other annuals and basil to encourage bushier growth.

- Add a 3-inch layer of organic mulch to protect root zones of vegetables and annual flowers from summer's heat.

June

- Raise the lawn mower blade for fescue lawns. Cutting height for Kentucky 31 should be 3 to 4 inches; turf-type fescues should be cut at 2 1/2 to 3 inches.

- Plant tropical water lilies and annual heat-seekers such as portulaca, celosia and sun coleus.

- Pick spent flowers of marigolds, petunias, salvias, zinnias and other annual ornamentals. Clip spent rhododendron blooms.

- Stake tall annuals and herbaceous perennials to prevent toppling.

- Watch for leaf galls on azaleas and camellias. Pick off and dispose of them.

- Take softwood cuttings from azaleas, boxwoods and other ornamentals and try your hand at propagation.

- Rake and discard fallen fruit from underneath trees.

- Stake or cage tomatoes and train green beans and cucumbers up supports.

- Lightly side-dress with fertilizer any vegetables that have just begun to set crops.

July

- Feed established stands of Bermuda grass and St. Augustine at a rate of one pound of nitrogen per thousand feet.

- Check for signs of grub infestation.

- Start biennials from seed.

- Midmonth, plant Brussels sprouts, beets, carrots, broccoli, collards and rutabagas.

- Pick beans, okra, squash and indeterminate tomatoes regularly to encourage the plants to produce more.

- Deadhead spent daylily blooms.

- Prune out dead and diseased branches and foliage from roses.

- After they bloom, divide day lilies and irises and prune French hydrangeas.

August

- Apply a pre-emergent herbicide to ward off bluegrass, chickweed, henbit and other winter weeds in the lawn.

- Check for aphids, flea beetles, spider mites, thrips and white flies.

- Keep strawberry plants mulched and add a light side-dressing of fertilizer.

- Plant colchicum, fall-flowering crocus, sternbergias and other autumn bulbs. Also add helianthus, helenium, heliopsis and rudbeckia to the flower border.

- Mulch and water holly, pyracantha, nandina and other fall-fruiting ornamentals.

September

- Plant fescue and Kentucky bluegrass. Diversify your selection with a mix of Kentucky 31, red fescue or one of the new turf-type fescues. Spread a light covering of straw over the newly seeded area and water thoroughly at least once a week.

- Fertilize established cool-season lawns of bluegrass and fescue with one pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet. Fertilize Bermuda, St. Augustine and zoysia lawns with 1/2 pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet.

- Plant perennials. The winter will allow the plants to develop strong root systems.

- Divide perennial herbs such as mint, parsley, chives and lemon balm.

- Buy spring-flowering bulbs and store them in the refrigerator.

- Start a backyard strawberry patch for a spring crop. Plant blueberries.

- Add color to the fall flower garden with calendula, dusty miller, ornamental kale, flowering cabbage, pansy and stock.

- Bring in houseplants before night temperatures dip into the 40s. Repot if necessary. Prune and check for insects.

- If needed, apply Thiodan or Tanglefoot to the trunk and lower limbs to attack peach tree borers.

October

- Rake regularly. Use grass clippings and leaves to start a compost pile.

- Clear the rose bed of old mulch and leaves, and add a fresh winter mulch.

- Rake debris from around fruit trees.

- Plant hardy annuals and biennials such as bells of Ireland, cornflower, foxglove, Johnny jump-ups, larkspur, coreopsis, calendula, nigella, pinks, pink poppy, snapdragons, sweet peas, sweet alyssum and Virginia stock.

- After dieback occurs, move permanently potted, hardy aquatic plants that will reside in the water garden this winter to deeper water.

- Divide and replant hostas, cannas, violets, perennial phlox, day lilies and Shasta daisies.

- Dig up or rototill areas for next year's new beds. Leave them rough or plant with a winter cover crop.

- Pot a few culinary plants from the garden such as sage, thyme, chives, mint or parsley and place them inside on a sunny window sill.

November

- Fertilize Kentucky bluegrass and fescue lawns at a rate of one pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet.

- Continue raking dropped leaves.

- Cut base suckers from crape myrtles.

- Cut back cannas and discard foliage.

- After frost nips perennials back to the ground, clean up the beds, add a winter mulch and label dormant plants.

- Plant anemones, daffodils, scillas, tulips, hyacinths and crocuses.

- Add time-released fertilizer to bulb beds.

- Apply a 2- to 3-inch layer of mulch to garden beds after the first frost.

- If the weather is dry, water new evergreens every week or two.

- Plant paperwhite narcissus in pots for Christmas blooms.

December

- Drain fuel from mower and other machines and dispose properly.

- Turn the soil in your annual bed to loosen the dirt and expose insects.

- Take a soil sample and avoid the spring rush.

- Lightly mulch peonies planted in the fall.

- When your Christmas cactus blooms, keep it in bright light but reduce watering to prolong the blooming period.

- Continue to water outdoor woody ornamentals.

- Plant asparagus.

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[Gardening in the Triangle]