Timely Tips for Garden Success - Winter
A lot of home owners tend to forget about their gardens in the winter. But this is possibly the most important time to take care of one's plants. By taking care of some simple tasks now, you will be able to keep your garden looking beautiful, and make it much more productive in spring.
LAWN CARE:
To prevent crabgrass in spring, feed your lawn with Scotts Crabgrass Preventer in January. It helps promote deep green color, encourages root development and helps prevent crabgrass and other lawn weeds. Remember to only water your lawn during periods of extended dry weather. Lower your mower height to 2 inches or less.
FRUIT TREES:
Now is the time to spray for disease prevention for fruit trees. We recommend spraying Microcop. Most fruit trees need to be sprayed more than once, and timing, along with dilution rates vary depending on weather and type of fruit tree. Feed deciduous fruit trees with a 0-10-10 fertilizer in January for a larger abundance of blooms in spring.
ROSES:
Dormant prune your roses in January. Remove any leaves that may still be left on plants. After pruning, give your roses one "clean-up" spray combining KopR Spray (for disease) with Dormant oil (for insect control).
FLOWERS & VEGETABLES:
Continue to feed flowers monthly with Greenlight Superbloom. For a larger harvest out of your garden, feed winter vegetables with Dr. Earth Tomato and Vegetable Fertilizer. Protect flowers and vegetables from slugs, snails, earwigs and crawling insects with Sluggo Plus.
WATER PLANTS:
Divide and transplant water lilies and other dormant water plants into larger pots for the following season. Use AQUATIC PLANT SOIL, not packaged potting soil whose organic ingredients can rot the plant roots. Use wider rather than deeper pots, because most water plants are shallow rooted and grow horizontally.
FROST PROTECTION:
Don’t prune frost tender plants such as Bougainvillea, Citrus, Ferns and Hibiscus until danger of frost has passed in spring. Do not cover plants with fabric or plastic unless you can create a removable "tent" structure that does not come in contact with foliage. The use of an anti-transpirant such as Cloud Cover will offer up to 5 degrees of extra frost protection. Make sure the soil is moist when a frost is expected. Do not wet foliage, especially in the morning when a plant is still frozen. Allow the plant to unthaw naturally.
WINTER PROTECTION:
Make sure and cover cold sensitive plants with straw, pine needles or some type of other breathable natural mulch to help protect them from cold damage. Don’t prune cold tender perennials and shrubs until all cold danger has passed in spring and plants are showing signs of breaking dormancy or re-leafing again. This will also help you see how far to prune back to.
