Weekly Garden Tip

March 5, 2006

By Gene Joyner, Extension Agent
Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension Service

Although spring has not officially arrived yet many area landscapes are beginning their spring growth and if you are one of these individuals that spend a lot of time outside in your garden, you’ve probably noticed that. This is the time of year for a lot of spring chores in the garden to insure that plants get off to a good start and have the rest of our growing season to recover from last year’s hurricane damage.

Fertilizing is one of the critical things that needs to be done this month and all trees, shrubs, palms and turfgrass areas need an application of a good quality complete fertilizer. Plants or small trees in the landscape that were bent over or toppled by last fall’s hurricanes should have been straightened into an upright position and securely anchored until they re-root. If you’ve not done that, those practices should be taken care of as soon as possible.

You will notice a lot of landscape plants changing out older leaves this time of year as they start putting out spring new foliage. It’s normal for in some cases 50% or more of last year’s leaves to come off in a very short period of time. Almost always new growth reappears following the dropping of the older leaves and within a short time the plant is growing well and has a much improved look.

Since many plants are putting out growth now they will require plenty of water and if we’re not getting regular rainfall and you don’t have a sprinkler system, make sure that plants and shrubs are watered at least once or twice a week so they don’t slow down their growth. This is especially important with flowering or fruiting plants since if they become stressed due to lack of sufficient moisture they will abort flowering buds or newly developing fruit.

Use mulches wherever possible in the landscape in flower and shrub beds to help hold moisture and reduce weed competition for your valuable landscape plants. Weeds really begin to actively grow this time of year and you need to get them under control before they spread to not only your landscape, but the rest of the neighborhood.

If you have questions about springtime landscape activities or you see problems in your landscape that you’re unfamiliar with, you can get some valuable free advice from the Palm Beach Extension Service. Dial 233-1750 in the north and central county area or 276-1260 in the south county area.