Now is the time to plant cool-season vegetables, from onions and potatoes to greens, cabbages, broccoli, and all the others thrown in. It is too early to plant the warm season lovers, like tomatoes and peppers, but plenty of options are still available.
It won’t be long before we are harvesting the first crop of asparagus. When asparagus is in season, it requires a bit of attention. Harvesting every other day or so is needed to prevent the spears from becoming too large. You also want to stop harvesting when the spears are smaller than a pencil in diameter. Now would be an excellent time to plant one for those who don’t have an established asparagus bed. One-year-old crowns are available at most nurseries and garden centers. Work up your soil and add some organic matter. Dig a trench and spread out the crowns, lightly covering them with soil. As they grow, continue to fill in with more soil until the trench is filled back up. We don’t begin harvesting until the crowns are three years old.
We are getting pretty late in the season for herbicides to be very effective on winter weeds, but you still have time to put out a pre-emergent for summer weeds. Once winter weeds begin to bloom and set seeds, the damage is done. Try to mow to keep weeds from setting seeds but hold off on using any fertilizer until your lawn grass has greened up—usually late April to early May. Putting out any fertilizer now will feed winter weeds, which don’t need any encouragement.
There is still plenty of time to prune summer-blooming plants, including roses, butterfly bushes, and summer spirea. All fruit trees, grape vines, and blueberry bushes also need yearly pruning. Ornamentals won’t bloom as well if you don’t prune, and fruiting plants will not give you the quality fruit you want if you don’t prune. Do try to get the pruning done by mid-March if you can. You can prune crape myrtles, althea, and abelia, but don’t touch the spring-blooming shrubs. Those should be pruned after they bloom, not before. There may be some winter damage in landscapes on ornamentals. If you have spring-blooming ornamentals such as loropetalum, azalea, or gardenia with damaged leaves, take a “wait-and-see” approach. Hopefully, the damage will be only cosmetic, and the plants will still have flowers, but you may have to prune more.
For many gardeners, winter annuals are beginning to make a slow comeback. Fertilize pansies and violas to encourage more blooms. If your plants look bad and need some quick color, consider putting in some short-season color plants like English primroses, calendula, and ranunculus. You may also be able to find some pansies, dianthus, and snapdragons for extra color. They have at least two more months to bloom.
Spring bulbs should be going strong. We are well into the daffodil season, with tulips not too far away. Spring bulbs are an easy way to add color to a garden, but they need six weeks of green growth after bloom to set flowers for next year. Crocus, daffodils, and hyacinths will return annually with minimal care, but tulips are a challenge. To ensure stunning color each spring, it is often best to plant new bulbs each fall.
We can all hope that the cold weather is behind us, but this is the month when we still need to pay attention to weather forecasts. As plants are breaking dormancy, this is the time when they can be the most sensitive to a late freeze. Have protection on hand if it is predicted to be cold.