For those who enjoy working in the lawn and flower gardens, the vacation is over. Our long, hard winter is over! It’s now time to get up and get busy; start doing some planning: Are you planning a landscape renovation? Rebuilding some beds? Planting new annuals in the flower gardens? Resodding? Fertlizing?
ANNUAL FLOWERING PLANTS: Although it may be tempting to go for the “bargain,” those truck loads of cool-weather annuals that are now marked down may not be such a good purchase. Their season is nearing the end. These annuals, such as certain varieties of petunias, probably won’t bloom through the heat this summer. Now would be a good time to start watching for warm-season, heat tolerant plant material.
LAWNS: We fertilize to make the turf grass grow; then we mow it make it short. It’s a vicious cycle. Mowing becomes a more frequent job this month, though perhaps not as often as will be necessary in another few weeks. See that your mower blade is sharp, and raise the blade so that no more than 1/3 of the turf grass is removed. For St. Augustine lawns, we set our blades at 3”.
FERTILIZING: Plants are living organisms, and therefore require food and water in order to thrive and grow. Feed now, if you have not already done so. We recommend using a broadcast spreader. Applying by hand or with a drop-spreader may not provide an even and uniform application. Shrubs can be fed with a balanced, slow-release granular fertilizer.
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