Spring Things - "to do" in the garden

Vegetables
We are probably well past any hard freezes so feel free to plant warm season vegetables by seed or as plants. If your garden plot is new or the soil seems hard to work and you're not going to till it, add handfuls of composted manure with each plant. Mulching will help keep the roots cool and delay the weeds. I like to use wheat straw. You can also underplant taller plants (tomatoes, peppers, etc) with a 'green mulch' of lettuce, radishes, herbs, marigolds, borage etc.
Most of the summer vegetables need a lot of sun...6 or more continuous hours of full sun exposure.


Pruning
Prune any shrubs that have finished flowering. For example, forsythia can be pruned. Or not. If you want to control the size of the forsythia, prune by removing a quarter of the main stems, randomly selected from the interior, or cutting the larger, older stems; cut them all the way to the bottom. If you're wanting to take the power hedge shears to them...it may be the wrong plant for that location.

Young dogwood trees can be pruned for deadwood or structure.
Remember the rule of pruning: think twice, cut once; think once, curse twice.

Weeding and pre-emergents
For all the trouble weeds give us, they should be simpler to control. But we have to identify the weeds and their life cycles to control them effectively, and to not waste money or over-medicate the environment.

Weeds can be annual or perennials.
Annual weeds can be winter or summer annuals. The big crop you're seeing now are probably winter annuals like chickweed, henbit, purple deadnettle which germinated in late fall and are coming to maturity. Summer annuals (spurges, bedstraw,knotweed, Japanese stiltgrass etc.) are just little seeds germinating now and you likely cant see them, yet. You can help to prevent annual weeds by distributing a pre-emergent herbicide in fall and spring. Always read the labels and don't over-apply.
Perennial weeds include: ground ivy, dandelion, sedges, plantains, clover. Controlling perennials weeds takes a little more effort, including hand weeding and selective use of post-emergent herbicides.

Here are some links about weeds that might be helpful:
http://www.utextension.utk.edu/publications/pbfiles/PB956part1.pdf?what=pb956part1
http://www.ppws.vt.edu/weedindex.htm

Go, See....... More Spring Plant-Lovers' Events

The annual Plant and Herb Sale, sponsored by the Herb Society of Nashville April 17 9AM Sports Arena at the fairgrounds in Nashville. http://www.herbsocietynashville.org/events_open_to_the_public.htm

Trails and Trilliums, "A Celebration and Sale of Native Plants" April 17& 18, Sewanee TN ttp://trails.sasweb.org/

12South Neighborhood Tour April 17, 2010 http://www.12south.org/

Growild, Inc. Spring Open House Friday April 30 and Saturday May 1, 2010 From 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM on both days. Music, wonderful food, hayrides, bird, butterfly and wildlife walks and talks and beautiful gardens. http://www.growildinc.com/

The Elsie Quarterman Glade Festival, a celebration and study of cedar glades habitat, which is an ecosystem unique to Middle Tennessee April 30- May 1, 2010 www.state.tn.us/environment/parks/Cedars/features/festival2010.html

Spring Wildflower Hike at Beaman Park in north Davidson County April 23,2010 9-11AM
www.nashville.gov/parks/nature OR http://www.beamanpark.org/

NUMEROUS wildflower hikes in various Tennessee State Parks. Seek out information at your favorite park or try this site: http://www.blueshoenashville.com/wildflowers.html

April 9

Here's a nice view of a Red Buckeye, Aesculus pavia. This is a small deciduous tree for sun or partial shade.





One of the spring ephemerals, a Trillium. 'Ephemerals' are the spring perennial wildflowers living in the understory of the forest (or, in a shady spot in your garden, that gets some winter sun). They take advantage of the late winter sunlight, emerge and bloom before the leaf cover is fully out on the deciduous trees, and by the heat of summer have shed their foliage. The root stays cool and alive underground and waits for the following spring to emerge again.

Go to http://www.blueshoenashville.com/wildflowers.html#hikes for a a list of many wildflower events.

April 8, 2010

Unusually warm temperatures, pleasant breezes, lovely weather...



Virginia Bluebells, Mertensia virginia, with Columbine, Aquilegia canadensis




















Celandine Poppy, Stylophorum diphyllum (or possibly,stylophorum lasiocarpum?)