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 | February | March | April | May | June |
July | August | September | October | November | December
- 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.
- Plant cold-hardy vegetables such as onion sets and sugar snap peas.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
