Early Spring Gardener’s Calendar

* Plan your summer vegetable and herb garden. We offer a wide selection of seeds that include all of your favorite annuals, perennials, vegetables and other novelties as well as many hard-to-find selections. Inventory your pots and flats and discard unusable ones. Make a list of the supplies you will need. Test your garden soil  for nutrient content. We offer a variety of do-it-yourself soil test kits.

* Prune woody plants while dormant, including fruit trees, summer- and fall-blooming shrubs and vines. Limit pruning of spring-blooming trees and shrubs to the removal of sucker growth and rubbing or broken branches. Spray trees and shrubs with year-round Bonide All Seasons Horticultural Oil to reduce insect population.

* Sharpen, clean and oil tools and lawn mowers. Begin heavy annual pruning of shrub roses as new leaves appear.

* Plant pansies and primrose as soon as the earth is workable. Plant strawberry plants. Sow cool-season vegetables and herbs in the garden. 

* Start spring cleanup and begin major lawn work. Remove debris, dethatch your lawn or aerate compacted areas to improve water penetration.

* Spray needles and limbs of Arborvitae, Cryptomeria, false cypress, fir, hemlock, Juniper, pine, yew and spruce (except blue spruce) for spider mites with Fertilome Dormant Oil.

* Apply fertilizer to perennials and roses with. Feed berry bushes, grapevines, rhubarb and asparagus a balanced 12-12-12 fertilizer before new growth begins. Fertilize trees and shrubs with Espoma Tree and Shrub fertilizer.

*Apply Bonide Weed Beater Complete to  control crabgrass. Do not use on newly seeded lawns.

* Continue spring cleanup. Cultivate to remove winter weeds and debris from the planting beds. Apply corn gluten or Preen specified for gardens and scratch it in to prevent future weeds. Do not use in gardens where you will be direct seeding.

* Reseed bare spots in established lawns with Dammann’s Special Grass Mix. Keep the area moist until seedlings appear, then mow when the new grass is 3″ high.

* Prune forsythia and other spring-flowering trees & shrubs after the flowers fall.

* Dig and divide crowded early spring bulbs after they finish blooming. Enrich the soil with Fertilome Bone Meal.

* Plant and transplant trees and shrubs, including roses, ground covers, and perennials.  Be sure to use Fertilome Root Stimulator to root your plants in properly.

* Transplant cool-season seedlings after hardening off into the garden mid to late March. When the soil temperature reaches 60 degrees in early May, sow warm-season vegetable and herb seeds.

* Place our gro-thru sets over peonies, grasses or any other perennials in need of support.