Fertilizers

• Feed! Feed! Feed! Winter cold and rain have washed synthetic nutrients from the soil. Whether you’re a conventional gardener or an organic gardener it is good to fertilize all of your plants to support spring growth. Begin feeding in March or April once the threat of frost has passed.

• When roses have 4”-6” of new growth it is time to feed them. Supplement roses every spring with Sul Po Mag and Dr. Earth Rose & Flower. Your roses will look better than ever!! For best results, feed now through fall according to rose food directions. Our favorite rose foods are: Dr. Earth, Master Nursery, and Maxsea.

• This is a good time to start feeding fruit trees, grapes, and berries. We recommend G&B Paradise 5-5-5 for its easy ‘throw-and-go’ application.

Plant Protection

• Spring rains bring fungus. Control rust, black spot, and powdery mildew on roses with Monterey Complete Disease Control. Apply as needed through spring.

• Protect new plantings from slugs and snails with pet safe Sluggo or the stronger Sluggo Plus.

• Problems with worms in your apples last year? You need to monitor for codling moth activity using Codling Moth Trap kit. Traps should be set out least two weeks before buds break. Set out traps in the mid-canopy of your apple tree, as high up as you can reach.

• Problems with worms in your cherries last year? Put out homemade traps on cherry trees to catch drosophila flies and spray with spinosad if needed.

Planting

• Vegetables, including 6 packs of lettuce and broccoli, need to be planted this month. Try planting seeds of beets, carrots, chard, radishes and seed potatoes.

• Annuals for color including calendula, fibrous begonias, violas, primroses, snapdragons and more! Check out our bedding tables for color this month.

• Consider getting a head start on flowers like delphinium, hollyhock, and foxglove. They take a while to bloom.

• Flowering trees like redbuds, deciduous magnolias, dogwoods, and Chinese Fringetrees are putting on quite a show this month. Bring one home with you and let the show continue in your garden!

Maintenance

• Remember to water plants under eaves and in containers. It’s important now to deep water trees and shrubs if it isn’t raining on a regular basis. Their root systems are starting to grow again now that the soil temperatures are rising.

• Begin pruning most evergreen shrubs, but do wait until they are done blooming!

• Cut back fuchsias by about a third. Make sure you keep some leaf buds where new branches will grow.

• Fruit Trees

  • Almond fertilize / begin irrigation

  • Apple fertilize young trees / remove mummies / clean up fallen debris / fire blight management / set out codling moth traps / begin irrigation

  • Apricot fertilize young trees / prevent brown rot / begin irrigation*

  • Cherry fertilize / prevent brown rot / begin irrigation

  • Fig fertilize / begin irrigation

  • Peach/Nectarine fertilize young trees / prevent brown rot / begin irrigation*

  • Pear fertilize / remove mummies / clean up fallen debris / fire blight management / set out codling moth traps / begin irrigation

  • Pecan fertilize / begin irrigation

  • Persimmon begin irrigation*

  • Pistachio plant container grown trees / fertilize / begin irrigation*

  • Plum/Pluot/Prune fertilize young trees / begin irrigation* / plum aphid management

  • Quince fertilize / remove mummies / clean up fallen debris / fire blight management / set out codling moth traps / begin irrigation

  • Pomegranate fertilize young trees / begin irrigation*

  • Walnut begin irrigation*
    *Only begin irrigation for these plants if winter rain has stopped.