MARCH
1. Prune and fertilize spring flowering shrubs (forsythia, viburnum, quince, azalea, camellia) after they bloom.Remove old flowers from camellias, azaleas and gardenias to avoid petal blight. Be wary of powered hedge pruners, particularly on blooming plants. While these can quickly turn a shrub into topiary, they can also produce a “scalped” plant that is nothing but a shapely mass of sticks that may never bloom again. A softer, hand-pruned look may be more desirable. For azaleas, “pinch” the base of the bloom with your thumb and forefinger and snap it off to encourage more blooms the following season; this removes the blossom and prunes the plant simultaneously.For all plants, carefully look at the plant before getting hasty with the shears. The goal is to leave a vase-like structure internally that is growing outward into the desired form without crossing branches. Prune low growing branches that are dragging on the ground or if you wish to turn the bush into a “standard”( more of a tree form). Make sure the form you are creating is appropriate to the plant. Some shrubs never generate a strong enough trunk to be turned into a standard, resulting in a top-heavy plant that needs to be permanently staked or trellised. It is better to err on the size of caution and prune the plant to emphasize its natural form, moving it or trading with a neighbor if it can’t be contained to a desired size.
2. Feed citrus with a balanced citrus fertilizer after harvesting all the fruit and watch for scale/ant infestations. You can continue treating with the oil spray treatment until fruit sets. If you have not done so already, feed your other fruit treesbefore the flowers open with either a timed-release feeder stake (like Jobe’s fruit tree fertilizer stakes) or by using ammonia sulfate. The challenge of using ammonia sulfate is to carefully weigh the product and to keep it a foot away from the trunk to avoid shocking the plant; for almonds, use 6 lbs. of ammonia sulfate; almonds, 3 lbs.; apricots and figs, 2-3 lbs.; peaches, nectarines, plums, and prunes, 1 ½ lbs. Cultivate the product lightly into the soil and water it in. Critics complain that the Jobe’s stakes do not break down and are a waste, but they are a more conservative and safer alternative if you fear damaging your tree with too much of a good thing. Be sure to use products specifically labeled as “safe” for fruit trees, as you will be ingesting the produce later!
3. Watch for powdery mildew on roses, grapes, crepe myrtle, and other ornamentals. Treat with a combination spray or granule, like Bayer Rose and Shrub, which combines a fertilizer, anti-fungal, and systemic pesticide. Mark your calendar to re-treat every 6 weeks for trouble free plants all season long.
4. It is not too late to shop for bare-root roses, shrubs, trees and vines.Before planting, carefully follow the grower’s instructions for hydrating the plant; most will recommend soaking the roots in water overnight.
5. While the ground is soft, you can also plant containerized trees and citrus. Good varieties of citrus for the Sacramento area are “Washington” orange (navel variety) and “Improved Meyer” lemons. Dwarf or semi-dwarf varieties are all most of us have room for.
6. You can also still plant beets, chard, collards, endive, fennel, kohlrabi, lettuce, mustard, peas, radicchio, radish, and turnips from seed. Transplant seedlings of broccoli, cabbage, kale, lettuce, and leeks. Set out seed potatoes in a furrow 4 inches deep and cover with two inches of soil. As the tops emerge, add more soil until there is a 4" ridge above the adjacent ground level.
7. If you’re adventurous and have a sunny window or greenhouse, start tomatoes, eggplants and peppers from seed and let them establish themselves for a month while the weather warms. Do not, however, let those nurseries with their greenhouse-grown seedlings and the beautiful weather tempt you to plant tomatoesoutdoors this early! The soil temperature has to be consistently above 50 degrees for tomatoes to thrive, and temperatures are still dropping into the 40 degree range at night. Be content with weeding your garden, turning the soil to a depth of a foot and adding your own or purchased compost or manure.
8. Check your emerging bulbs and young plants for aphids, snails, and slugs. To remove aphids, rinse the plants with water or insecticidal soap. For snails and slugs, use bait to get the population under control.
9. Rejuvenate perennial flowers and herbs by cutting back old/dead growth and thinning out woody and non-productive sections of the plant. Fertilize with Miracle Gro to stimulate new leaf growth and water.
10. In the flower garden, plant seed for baby’s breath, calendula, California poppy, cornflower, forget-me-not, larkspur, nasturtiums, nicotiana, and snapdragon. Give nasturtiums ample room to ramble on the ground and they will reward you with riotious color, like a Monet painting, all summer long. A bonus – insects dislike them, which is why they are widely used in vegetable gardens (plus, they are edible!)
11. Watch your lawn for infestations of the dreaded Bermuda grass, which travels both by seed and runners. It can be recognized by its lighter green color and bamboo-like stalks; dig the shoot at the base as soon as you see it, removing as many of the attached runners as you possibly can. It is always a good idea to take a few moments to “patrol” your lawn before you mow it to dig out any intruders that have escaped your pre-emergent; if you mow over weeds with seed heads, the mower acts like a giant rotary spreader, adding to your problems rather than suppressing them. If you have a mowing service, the mower and weed whacker that travel from lawn to lawn will carry weed seeds with them; you will need to be doubly diligent with your patrols and Weed and Feed. Set your sprinklers to water only once or twice a week, or as needed to keep your new seedlings damp; if, when you run your sprinklers, the water immediately stands on top of the soil, then the soil is still saturated and does not need to be watered. Continue to monitor reduce your water use!