Newsletter - March 2008

There is so much to do in the garden this month, but it's easy to get distracted with the beautiful weather. In my garden I eagerly check progress on the almond and nectarine blooms daily and hope the next rain won't knock them all away before some are pollinated. The yellow daffodils and blue anemones have never opened together before and may never again, but this year they're a wonderful combination. I found pussy willow blooming for a vase in the house. The Daphne is still fragrant. The Helleborus is actually producing flowers (second year in the ground) and on the terrace I see new orchid spikes blooming daily. It's difficult to think about chores for summer blooms when so much is happening.

I have dahlias, lilies and gladiolas to plant and should do it soon while the ground is still soft. These three bulb types provide wonderful cut flowers either to mix with roses, or use alone. Around the roses you may like to try the perennial Veronica. I've found the 18" high purple spikes to be very dependable. It's safe now to start vegetable and annual flower seeds. In our area we focus on fruit crops for the summer, so tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, beans and squash. If you have the room, plant corn and pumpkins too. Save the leaf, root, pea, and cole crops for winter here. Flower varieties seem endless for the summer, so I like to start things not readily available at the local garden centers. No petunia, marigold, or impatiens seed for me. I prefer larkspur, cosmos, verbascum, cornflower and godetia. They're just as easy, take full sun and bloom all summer.

Remember to amend the garden soil with organic compost before planting. Don't add it to individual holes, but amend an area with a 3" depth of either green or animal manure and turn it under. If you're using the animal kind, stick with chicken manure or worm casings. These won't add weed seeds to your soil. Everything needs a good dose of fertilizer after all the rain we've had. If your plant foliage from the top down looks yellow, it needs nitrogen. If the yellowing (also called chlorosis) begins at the bottom of the plant, it has had too much water, so let it dry out some before fertilizing and re-irrigating. Our soils are usually high in phosphorous and potassium, but it isn't always in soluble form, so unavailable for plant use. That's why the nurseries recommend a complete balanced fertilizer for the first spring application. Try a 10-10-10, 12-12-12, or 16-16-16 on your sun-loving shrubs, and young trees. Give lawns a mega-dose of nitrogen such as a 18-6-4, or a 24-4-3 plus S. Sulfur decreases the alkalinity of clay soil. Also in March, apply the first application of nutrients on citrus, avocado and acid-loving plants. Generally, these are higher in phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) to promote strong bloom and fruit production. Sulfur, zinc, and iron in trace amounts are also good for these varieties.

If you purchased any bare-root plants, prepare them for planting immediately. Remove the plastic from their roots and cut off any root that looks moldy, or soft.
Soak the roots in a bucket from 12-24 hours then plant them in the ground insuring that the plant's crown (the point where the roots connect with the trunk) is about one inch above the soil. Be certain to tamp the soil firmly around the roots without overly compacting the soil, apply water and walk away. It's best to wait on fertilization until you've seen signs that the plant has "taken" - new growth, or about six weeks.

All of this will keep me busy every weekend this month. I know some of you are still developing garden areas, so I thought each month I would pass along a design tip. If you are directing traffic in a garden along an area where you want people to pass quickly such as a storage shed, wood pile, or dog pen, use widely spaced steppingstones to elongate a person's stride. If you want to slow traffic to admire your koi pond, herb garden, or prized roses, place the steppingstones close together. This really works.