Gardening Tips > March

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General Gardening Tips

• March ushers in the spring season and it's time to get your garden into shape. It's time to mulch and edge your garden beds and fertilize your existing plants.
• Flowering cherries, peaches, plums and pears bloom this month. Add one of these early spring bloomers to your garden.
• Prune roses and cut back liriope and ornamental grasses before new growth begins.
• If needed, now is the time to spray fruit trees, roses and other trees and shrubs with a dormant spray. Dormant spray should only be applied if the temperature is above freezing. Dormant sprays are recommended if your plants had a problem the previous year. Examples include hemlock woolly adelgid, pine bark adelgid, eyounomous scale, spruce mites and other pests. Since some dormant sprays are for insects (Dormant Oil) and others are for diseases (Lime Sulfur), and still others combine the two, we recommend that you speak with one of our plant specialists about the appropriate control for your particular plants.
• Plant pansies, violas and primroses for early spring color in the landscape.
• Summer blooming bulbs such as gladiolus, cannas and dahlias are now in stock.
• Divide and transplant perennials if needed. Merrifield has thousands of varieties of perennials to choose from with fresh shipments arriving this month.
• Apply Preen, Amaze or Cockadoodle Doo Organic Weed Control  to garden beds to prevent weeds from germinating.
• J&P Roses are in stock at both Beaver Bark Gift & Garden Center locations. Plant now for beautiful color all summer long.
• Plant early vegetables such as onion sets, rhubarb, asparagus, lettuce, spinach, kale and potatoes.
• Start caladiums in pots indoors for deck and patio color after danger of frost is over.
• It's time to start seeds indoors for summer annuals and vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, impatiens, zinnias, etc.

Lawns

• March is a great time to get your lawn into shape by liming, seeding, fertilizing and preventing crabgrass and other weeds.
• Seed the lawn with a good quality grass seed that is suited for the conditions of your lawn.
• If needed, lime the lawn to raise soil pH. Lawns prefer a pH range of 6.2 - 6.8. If your tests show a level lower than 6.0, or you have not limed the lawn in the past two years, you should lime at the rate of 50 lb. of lime per 1,000 square feet of lawn area. This will raise the pH 1�/2 point. If you need to apply more lime, wait six weeks between applications.
• Prevent crabgrass in the lawn by applying Crab-Ex (Dimension)(if not seeding) or a product containing Tupersan (if seeding) in late March or early April.
• If you are not seeding, you can also prevent broadleaf weeds in the lawn by applying Portrait in March.

House Plants

• Feed houseplants with a good quality indoor plant food such as Jack's Classic (water-soluble powder) or Osmocote (slow-release granular).
• If needed, re-pot root bound houseplants to a larger pot. Beaver Barkstocks a full line of containers, including terra cotta, wood, concrete, ceramic and plastic. Use Beaver BarkPotting Mix when repotting houseplants.
• Check the leaves of your houseplants for insects or any other problems. If needed, bring in a representative sample and one of our plant specialists will diagnose the problem and recommend the appropriate control.

Additional Information

For more information to help you garden more easily and successfully, stop into the garden center.

March Reminders:

• Spring is upon us so make an appointment with one of our landscape designers to make plans for a beautiful spring landscape.