Plan to plant vegetables, fruit and summer bulbs
So far, March weather has been like a lamb. Even though colder temperatures and snow may return any minute, give your landscape some watering attention and get your engines ready for the outdoor gardening season.
Prepare for drought
Do we dare mention drought as we ease in to spring? Moisture has been scarce, and the very little we’ve had hasn’t been enough to soak down deeply to plant roots. Roots need some moisture to ensure a good spring wake-up and endurance through our hot, often dry summers.
Check your landscape moisture depth by poking down in grassy areas and landscaped beds with a long screwdriver or soil probe. You’ll know it’s dry if it doesn’t go down easily. No need to water frozen soil, which usually is in the shady parts of the landscape.
Choose a sunny day that is 40 degrees or warmer and water midday so it soaks in well. First, water trees, shrubs and perennials that were planted last season. Next, water south- and west-facing lawn areas. Often trees are growing in lawn areas, so they will appreciate the extra moisture.
Set up your hoses and move
the sprinkler head every 10 minutes or so around the outside tips of the tree canopy, known as the drip line. Attach a handheld nozzle sprayer for smaller plantings. Disconnect and drain the hose to prevent night time freezing.
Continue watering every three to four weeks during dry spells.
Bring the outdoors into the house by forcing flowering trees and shrub branches indoors to bloom. Use dogwood, mockorange, forsythia, pussy willow, privet, serviceberry, cherry, magnolia and redbud branches.
Choose side branches with lots of spurs or flowering buds. Cut the branch 6 to 20 inches in length, one quarter inch above a bud, careful not to leave a stub. Once inside the house, make a second slant cut above the first cut and place in warm tap water and add floral preservative to keep the water clear for about a week. Use a decorative vase to show off the blooming branches. Set in a sunny, warm location.
If grassy weeds, such as crabgrass, goosetailgrass, barnyardgrass and foxtail, were a problem in your lawn last year, bad news: their seeds dropped last fall, by the thousands. They germinate each spring when soil temperatures warm to 55 degrees and higher.
Pre-emergent lawn products sold at garden centers applied this month and through early April will help prevent the seeds from germinating and growing this season. Good cultural practices with correct mowing height, watering and fertilizing help to prevent weeds in the first place.
Birds appreciate fresh water during dry winters. Provide a shallow dish or bowl of water in the landscape that they can see and use until the weather stays warm when the regular bird bath is cleaned and ready for use. Keep birdseed available, too.
Encourage the earliest bees in your garden, like the solitary mason bee. These gentle bees will pollinate spring blooms on perennials, trees and shrubs. Easy-to-construct nesting boxes for the female mason bee can be purchased or made with cardboard tubes or hollow tunnels (with the end blocked) in a small block of wood. Read more at dpo.st/masonbee.
Turn over fall-planted cover crops so the green materials break down in time for spring planting.
Plant spring-blooming plants like pansies, primroses and snapdragons outside in containers or borders — if the soil is workable.
Start warm-season seeds indoors for planting outside later in May — peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, okra and tomatillos. These plants can also be purchased later in spring at garden centers for planting in May after the final spring frost.
Garden centers are filled with cool-season transplants such as broccoli, cabbage, kales, Brussels sprouts and more. Plant some in your own garden this month and through April to get a jump on plant growth.
Be sure to acclimate or prepare transplants from the indoor greenhouse to outdoors for several days by setting them outside (while in their containers), then bringing them back inside. Increase the time and sun exposure as they get hardened off to Colorado sun and climate. Plant when the soil has warmed to 45 to 50 degrees.
Bare root vegetables and fruits have arrived in garden centers. Perennial asparagus, rhubarb, horseradish, grapes, raspberries, strawberries and blackberries are delicious and fun to grow. Plan before planting — these long-lasting edibles need sun and room and won’t want to be moved.
If your soil is workable (not frozen or too wet) and has warmed to 45 to 50 degrees, plant snow, shelling or sugar snap peas and potatoes, leeks, onions and shallots.
Try indoor pea-seeding in mid-March for successive spring harvests. Pea seeds need only three weeks of indoor growth before being transplanted outdoors (but allow them to harden off before planting in the ground).
Always use certified potato seeds for planting to reduce possible disease issues. Find early-, midor late-maturing varieties in local garden centers or online. Space 12 to 18 inches apart and cover with 3 inches of soil, adding more soil as they grow. Try growing them in reusable, soft-sided smart pots or grow bags for ease of watering, healthy growth and effortless harvesting.
Be prepared to cover all new cool-season plantings with row covers or frost blankets on frosty nights below freezing.
Purchase and pot up summer bulbs including dahlias, gladiolus and begonias. The selection is plentiful at local garden centers. Pot up healthy indoor wintered over summer bulbs for planting in late May.