Garden Checklist for March 2010
Peruvian daffodil, or Scilla peruviana,
is a choice bulb for warmer Texas gardens
- Plan for and invest in some permanent bulb plantings this year. Bulk bulbs are less costly than the small packages from nurseries or box stores. Once planted, the lawn may be mowed as usual after the foliage of the bulbs is dried. Scilla peruviana is a choice bulb that brings hard-to-get blue shades into the garden.
- Prepare beds for planting flowers and vegetables. You may want to consider renting or buying a garden tiller to speed up the process; however, a strong back and a garden fork will still do an excellent job.
- For every 100 square feet of bed area, work in a several-inch layer of either compost, pine bark or sphagnum peat moss, plus 5 pounds of balanced fertilizer.
- Check with your local county agent for the average last killing freeze date for your area. Remember that killing freezes can occur after this date.
- Pruning of evergreens and summer flowering trees and shrubs should be completed in early March. Prune spring flowering trees and shrubs as soon as they finish blooming.
- Select and order caladium tubers as well as geranium and coleus plants for late April and early May planting. Do not plant caladiums until soil temperature reaches 70°F.
- As camellia and azalea plants finish blooming, fertilize them with three pounds of azalea-camellia fertilizer. Check mulch on azalea and camellia beds and add where needed.
- In North Texas there is still time to plant seeds of your favorite annuals in flats to be transplanted out-of-doors when danger of frost is past.
- Beware of close-out sales on bare-root trees and shrubs. The chance of survival is rather low on bare-root plants this late in the season. Your best bet at this time of year is to depend on container-grown or balled-and-burlapped plants for landscape use.
- Start hanging baskets of petunias and other annuals for another dimension in landscape color.
- Plant dahlia tubers in fertile, well-drained soil.
- Dig and divide summer and fall flowering perennials just before they initiate their spring growth.