By Hank Smith | March 2004
Winter
Garden Vegetables and Fruits
Remove grass and weeds from vegetable and flower gardens so they don’t become a haven for insect eggs and diseases that can attack summer gardens.
Till garden soil to expose wintering insects and their eggs to killing temperatures.
Continue to apply compost and other organic materials to vegetable and flower garden sites. Spade in 3 or 4 inches. This prepares the soil for spring plantings.
Sprinkle used coffee grounds on the garden. They’re a mild organic fertilizer, and they repel many pests. Earthworms like them, too.
Trees and Shrubs
Trees and shrubs planted now usually have ample time to become established before spring’s warm weather arrives.
Considerable root activity occurs during our average winters. In case of severe freezes, mulch heavily from the trunks to the area above the end tips of roots.
After selecting varieties of shade trees, it’s important to place the tree with ample distance from the house, drive, patio or deck. Small trees can be planted at a distance of 15 feet; tall, spreading trees should be placed as much as 40 feet away.
When rainfall is scant, continue to water trees and shrubs. Plants need soil moisture even when temperatures are low.
More shrubs are killed in winter by lack of water than by low temperatures.
Take care in pruning pine trees. If a pine branch is shortened, there are no side branches left with dormant living buds to provide new growth.
If a plant needs cutting back, leave severe pruning until late winter or early spring, just before plants will be putting forth new growth.
Shrubs that bloom in mid-to-late summer such as vitex, Eleagnus, crepe myrtle and althea should have any necessary pruning before spring’s warm weather arrives.
Flowers
Complete planting of spring-flowering bulbs. Caladiums and gladioli are outstanding plants in this group.
If you’ve been chilling tulip bulbs in the refrigerator, remove them and get them in the ground before Christmas.
Cut back chrysanthemums every month or six weeks to keep plants compact. They will spread and produce masses of flower-producing stems.
Increase stock of perennials by digging/dividing/resetting these: chrysanthemums, daylily, Shasta daisy, aster, coreopsis and gaillardia.
Lawn
While weather is still cool, plant shade-tolerant groundcover to carpet areas where growing grass is a problem, like underneath shade trees. Some suggestions for shade-tolerant groundcover are vincas, ajugas, liriope, pachysandra or English ivy. Liriope is useful for planting in narrow restricted spaces.
Treatments
Never place manure in the planting home.
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