Yes, it’s still too early to plant out your warm weather crops. Meanwhile, you can get going on some your landscape work!
Be gentle when raking in the spring. Do your tougher raking in the fall when the grass is fully grown and heading into dormancy. Hard spring raking rips up tender new grass plants. If your turf feels spongy when you walk on it, you may need to have it de-thatched this year. I already have dandelions popping up — oh joy.
Thinking of increasing garden space? There are a few ways to turn turf into a garden area: One method is to use a non-selective herbicide to kill off the top growth, most effective. Once it is dead, use a flat bottom shovel to cut the top vegetative layer off and remove. Instead of removing the layer, you can till it in, but you will have clumps of turf material for years, everywhere. This will make cultivating the garden difficult. A non-chemical method would be to solarize the area using black plastic for a few weeks or until the plant material all dies back. Then remove the dead layer in the same fashion. You can also rent a sod stripper which removes the layer for you.
Take a walk around inspection and check all your trees. Inspect the lower bark on any young trees that maybe were girdled from the cute little rabbits. Girdling is when the bark is chewed off all the way around. A girdled tree may struggle for a few years before dying, so why wait to replace it? Next fall, remember to wrap them for protection.
If the top of your fruit tree is dead, the tree is history. Nearly every fruit tree is grafted, so any growth from the stump is not the apple or cherry tree you wanted, but just the rootstock. The scion, is the top section of the tree which was grafted onto the rootstock and it determines what type of tree it is. For instance, Honey Crisp Apple or Meteor Cherry. The rootstock determines the height of the tree, as to whether it’s a dwarf or standard, its winter hardiness etc. The photo shows sucker growth from the rootstock of my pear tree.
It was a mild winter, but some trees and shrubs may have still died over winter due too other issues. After 3 years of less than normal rain, trees can definitely be stressed. Compaction due to frequent driving near the root zones, disease or incorrect planting can also cause tree death. It isn’t always something that just happened. Another cause could be digging to close to a tree, cutting off too many roots and it never recovered.
Unless you are pruning a spiral evergreen, it’s best not to ‘tip prune’ your evergreens like Spruce, let them be natural. Eventually you can’t reach the tops of your young trees and in 15 yrs. you’ll have a compacted mess at the top, and loose au natural on the bottom, happens every time. Have you seen this before and wondered, “what happened?” Unless you are committed to lots of timely pruning, I would avoid any tree that needs it like weeping cherries or any topiaries.
Check any plastic rings protector around tree trunks and remove if the tree will outgrow it this year. Plastic rings can become embedded right into the tree, not good. Also, remove any paper or protective wrap winter wrap. Insects love to hide under the wrap and can damage the bark.
A reminder not to prune your lilacs and spring flowering shrubs this time of year. Ornamental flowering shrubs should be pruned back soon after their own flowering period is over, like lilacs. If you prune these types now, you will be pruning off the flowering buds that were set last year. Shrubs with more insignificant flowers can be pruned now if needed like willows, dogwoods, burning bush, ninebark etc.
Sunday was rainy — yahoo! Conditions are improving but here is a general rule of thumb for healthy plants: apply one inch of water per week if no rain falls. Your trees and shrubs are your most expensive plants, take care of them.
The indoor winter markets at Bomgaars are done for the season. A HUGE shout out to Bomgaars for hosting the Mankato Farmer’s Market again this past winter. Your generosity is appreciated by customers and vendors! The outdoor summer market starts as usual on the first Saturday in May. This year opening day is May 4th, at 8 a.m. in the Best Buy parking lot on Adams Street. We appreciate you as well Best Buy — hosting us for year eleven at your location.