Lawn and Garden: Action Items This Week

As the North Texas weather transitions from winter to spring, it's essential to seize the moment for specific gardening tasks before conditions shift and opportunities are missed for another year. The recent cold snap may have delayed some activities, but now is the time to get back on track. Here's a comprehensive guide tailored for North Texas gardeners to ensure your landscape thrives in the coming seasons.

PLANT

Trees, Shrubs, and Vines: Early March is ideal for planting ornamental trees and shrubs while the weather remains cool. This timing allows roots to establish before the intense summer heat.
Cool-Season Annuals: Introduce vibrant color to your garden with cool-season flowers such as alyssum, daisies, dianthus, and geraniums. These plants thrive in the cooler temperatures of early spring.
Vegetables: Continue planting cool-season vegetable seeds outdoors, including beets, carrots, collard greens, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, mustard greens, scallions, spinach, Swiss chard, and turnips. As the month progresses and soil temperatures rise, consider planting beans by seed outdoors, such as bush beans, lima beans, pole beans, and snap beans.

PRUNE

Groundcovers and Ornamental Grasses: Prune back overgrown groundcovers like English ivy and Asian jasmine before new growth begins. Similarly, cut back ornamental grasses to maintain their health and appearance.
Winter-Damaged Plants: Inspect your landscape for any winter damage and remove affected twigs or branches. However, for some plants, it might be prudent to wait and assess the extent of the damage before extensive pruning (look for new growth in early spring to be sure the plant is still alive and well).
Spring-Flowering Shrubs and Vines: Avoid pruning spring-flowering shrubs and vines until after they have finished blooming to ensure you don't remove potential blossoms.

FERTILIZE

Annual Flowers: Apply a high-nitrogen, water-soluble fertilizer to annual flowers to promote vigorous growth and blooming.
Trees, Shrubs, and Groundcovers: Based on soil test recommendations, fertilize established shade trees, ornamental trees, and shrubs as spring growth begins.

PRE-EMERGENT WEED CONTROL

Pre-emergent herbicides are crucial for preventing the germination of summer weeds like crabgrass and grassburs. Common options include Dimension, Balan, and Halts as suggested by Neil Sperry. There are some other option out there on the market with claims to be even better for the environment! If you find something that works great, reply to me and let me know! That way I can update this blog for the community!

Timing: Apply pre-emergent herbicides approximately two weeks before the average date of the last killing freeze for your area. For instance, in Dallas County, the average last freeze date ranges from March 21st to 31st, suggesting an application around the first or second week of March.
Booster Application: Due to Texas's extended growing season, a second application is suggested 90 days after the initial treatment to maintain weed prevention.

Keeping your lawn and garden healthy brings you both an peaceful retreat for your own healthy but it also can be so rewarding to see your lawn thrive!

Sources for today's tips: