March Lawn & Garden Tips

Lawn

Fescue

This is the month that cool season grasses really start to grow. If you haven't already, go ahead and apply your fertilizer. A soil test is the preferred method of determining how much to apply but if you haven't or will not do a soil test, apply 10 pounds of 10-10-10 fertilizer per 1000 square feet of lawn space. This will get your lawn off to a good start.

Warm season grasses such as Bermuda and Zoysia need to be fertilized during the warm months of the year. Now is the time to conduct weed control for broadleaf weeds in your warm season grasses.

DON’T bag grass clippings. Leave them on the lawn and save 25% on your fertilizer needs for the year. Clippings take up unnecessary landfill space and can be best disposed of in a home compost bin. (Compost clippings only if you have NOT applied broadleaf weed killer!)

Shrubs

Your shrubbery should be pruned this time of the year. Pruning prior to bud break is the safest pruning method for most shrubs. If you have shrubs that bloom on one year old wood such as Azaleas and Hydrangeas, prune them after they bloom. Now is also a good time to clean up any fallen leaves and debris in your shrub beds to prevent diseases from last year from reappearing.

Fruit Trees

Fruit trees should be pruned prior to bud break. If you are just getting around to it, then you are late! It is still ok to prune but you must to it asap! As your trees bloom, begin spraying with an all purpose orchard spray every two weeks as the flower petals fall from the tree. The first 6 weeks of spraying is critical for a decent fruit crop.

Trees

Remove any dead, diseased or crossing branches from your trees prior to bud break.

In The Garden…..

It's time for that spring garden again! In reality it is best in our area to plant your spring crops as early as March 1st. If you have yet to get around to planting, there is still time to plant early cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, carrots, beets, onions and basically any crop that can take a frost and that will be harvested within 60 days or so.

It is also time to begin turning in your cover crops to prepare for your summer planting. In our area we plant around May 1, and you will need the month and a half until then for the cover crops to decompose properly in the soil prior to planting. Now is also a good time to conduct a soil test, as you still have time to get it back prior to summer planting.

Crabgrass

Crabgrass and summer broadleaf weed preventers should be applied while the forsythia is in bloom, but before the dogwoods bloom. This is usually around March 15-April 1. A second pre-emergence treatment should be applied eight weeks after the first to maintain season long control of crabgrass. Pre-emergent herbicides can only be used on established lawns, if you seeded your Tall Fescue lawn this past fall or overseeded this spring you cannot use any pre-emergent herbicides for crabgrass or you will kill/damage your Tall Fescue. If you already have crabgrass above ground these products are useless. A post-emergent herbicide may be applied for control of emerged crabgrass early in the summer.