Denny's Soapbox

Late Winter Do’s and Don’ts

Today we’ll discuss some late winter and early spring dos and don’ts. The following tips can save you time and money, and make your landscape more enjoyable this year. There’s lots of misinformation to bad information out there. I’ll try to clarify a lot of that info. Let’s get started.

Do – Cut back your ornamental grass as soon as you can. Tie all the brown blades into a tight bundle and cut them off as close to the ground as possible. Do this before the new blades start to grow in a few weeks.

Don’t – Let your lawn service put down lawn fertilizer and/or pre-emergent crabgrass control. The grass plants are still dormant and won’t receive the fertilizer and your pre-emergence, which only lasts up to 90 days, will not be around to work when your crabgrass seed germinates in May. Same timing applies to you do-it-yourselfers. These products should not be applied till mid-March at the earliest.

Do – Use a pre-emergent crabgrass and weed seed control that contains Prodiamine™ as the active ingredient. Unlike other pre-emergents that last for up to 90 days, Prodiamine continues to kill weed seed of all types all spring and summer.

Don’t – Put down any pre-emergent crabgrass control until any winter seed you’ve applied has germinated and started to grow, usually around mid-April.

Do – Rake up any leaves that have trapped themselves under your shrubs. This will allow air to replace the leaves and help aerate and dry the wet soil from winter.

Don’t – Prune any of your spring flowering trees and shrubs until after they have bloomed. You then have a one month window to prune and not affect next year’s bloom.

Do – Contact your landscape designer now if you are going to need their services this spring. The longer you wait the longer the line.

Don’t – Try to work the soil in your plant beds while the soil remains wet. Wait until we have a few dry-weather days.

Do - Go to my website, www.bloomingarden.com for more gardening advice and tip sheets.

Don’t – Forget to add more Knock-Out Roses to your landscape this spring. Think of Knock Outs as flowering shrubs that don’t stop blooming till December and they come in seven flavors

Do - Patronize the many great year-round garden centers and nursery stores that provide great trees, shrubs, flowers and most important, great gardening information.

Don’t – Apply any pesticide, fungicide, or herbicide without first reading the label information.

Do – Follow the recommended rates of application for any gardening product.

See, that was not too difficult to write and it should not be too difficult to follow. Do so, and you’ll have a very successful and beautiful landscape.