MENUBy the end of February, gardeners are crawling the walls, eager to get out and get dirt under their fingernails. Even many non-gardeners have developed bad cases of cabin fever by now. Everyone wants to get outside.I don’t have any magic cure for bad weather, but I do have some thoughts on how you can satisfy your green thumb while housebound. That is to get a head start on the growing season by doing some fun, family activities that you may have never tried before.Have you tried growing plants from seed since grade school? If you can do it in grade school, you can do it now. Granted, buying annuals and vegetable plants in pots from the garden store is easier, and the outcome more predictable. But, growing from seed can be more satisfying, and it will go a long way towards curing that cabin fever.Include the children and their creative ideas. They may think of a way to make this task into a game, like whose plant will sprout first, whose will look the best, whose will bear first fruit when planted outdoors, and numerous other games we adults can’t imagine. The best thing is that these games don’t use electronic controllers, so they are not expensive.You may have some expenses growing plants from seed. It just depends on how deeply you want to get into it. At minimum, you need containers for the seeds. These can range from peat pots, which are fine for just a few plants, to flats if you are starting a whole garden. How you provide your seeds, and seedlings, with light also depends on how many plants you are growing. A few plants will do fine on window sills, provided the windows and sills aren’t cold. For flats, you may need a Grow Light – a special fluorescent lamp that emit light that emulates the sun. You turn it on for the number of hours each day that the seeds need to germinate.Most plants start out as seeds anyway, so starting your garden as Mother Nature does can be a satisfying experience and a valuable lesson for your children. Just be sure your timing is correct for the variety that you are planting. If the seeds germinate too early, the plants may outgrow their pots or trays and you will have to transfer each little seedling to a bigger container, rather than right out into the ground.
Although farmers and orchard owners are rightly concerned about tonight’s impending frost, there is no need for you as a gardener to panic. Granted, we have a number of landscape plants flowering earlier than usual. While the blooms that are already showing may be vulnerable, these plants should be hardy enough to survive and thrive this season.I have two PJM Rhododendrons that are in full bloom and two that have swollen buds that have not yet broken. The only way to save the flowers would be to cover the two that are in full bloom. However, the flowers are so delicate that the blanket, or other cover, I put over them would probably dislodge the pedals and ruin the flowers anyway. Confident that the unbroken buds will flower when it warms up again, and having the satisfaction of knowing that we had a whole weekend to enjoy the early blooms, I’ll just let nature take its course.Forsythia and spring bulbs, especially crocus and daffodils, are the primary flowers that will be subject to tonight’s frost. However, I think both flowers are hardy enough to survive. They are often subject to a hard freezes when they bloom at their usual time, and they come through just fine.If your early leafing trees and shrubs are worrying you, rest assured that they, too, will survive.This is predicted to be only a one night freeze. In an ordinary year, we would not think twice about it. The early onset of spring, however, is causing us unnecessary concern. In my experience, conditions this year are no different than they would be in any other year, except that it happens to be earlier on the calendar.
Many people express concern to me when they see our arborists working in the dead of winter. I’m really not the reincarnation of Simon Legree. Arborists love trees, and they brave the elements because winter is actually a good time to prune most non-flowering, deciduous trees. Deciduous trees are those that lose their leaves in winter.Arborists can see a tree's structure better in winter when there are no leaves on the branches, so they can shape the tree more precisely. Without leaves, it's also easier to spot dead or broken branches. These need to be removed to help avoid breakage resulting from harsh winter weather.Deciduous trees are dormant in the winter, and dormancy acts as nature’s anesthetic. No sap will ooze out of the wound and run down the tree. Best of all, the tree will get a head start on recovery while insects and disease organisms are still dormant. Then by spring, insect and disease resistant tissue will be well established and the wounds closed by the time pests wake up.From a practical standpoint, frozen ground supports heavy equipment better and there is less debris to clean up.Tree pruning is not a do-it-yourself job. Deciding what and where to prune involves an understanding of basic tree biology, sharp tools, and an artful eye. Also, tree pruning is one of most dangerous jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. That’s why tree care workers wear special protective clothing and equipment.The best pruning advice I can give you is to call a pro. If you decide to try pruning a tree in your yard, and you have to leave the ground to reach branches you want to remove, or if you need to use power equipment, call a Certified Arborist. Your life is much too valuable to end it as a statistic.
An old song goes, “April showers bring May flowers.” However, spring brings much more, including some pests you don’t want.Many insects, especially aphids, mites and scale, overwinter on trees. When spring arrives, buds break and green leaves unfurl. That’s also a signal for overwintering insects to wake up and begin chomping on the new leaves. They don’t have to wake up. They can be smothered in their sleep with a product called dormant oil.I like dormant oil. It’s easy to apply, it’s effective and it has very little environmental impact. As soon as the temperature rises above freezing for awhile, I apply dormant oil to the trees and shrubs in my yard. Because of its low environmental impact, I don’t have to closely examine whether my trees have aphids or other overwintering insects. If a tree or shrub had any of these pests last year, I can simply spray them this year, confident that I am not harming the environment. These would be very definite concerns with more aggressive pesticides.Dormant oil is one in a family of products called horticultural oils. These products are highly refined petroleum jelly like you use on burns. They are applied to coat the insects and smother them. Dormant oil is the thickest, and the most effective. Due to its thickness, it has to be applied while the both the pest and the tree are still in winter dormancy. It cannot be applied when the tree has leafed out and it cannot be applied when the air is too cold. If you spray it when it is too cold, it will coagulate and get all sticky. If you spray it after the tree leafs out, the coating of oil can interfere with the tree’s respiration and kill it, right along with the bugs. There is definitely a small window of opportunity, but one that is worth taking advantage of.Due to the warm weather we’ve seen this winter, our plant health care professionals have already begun applying dormant oil but it’s not too late to make applications until the leaf buds break.Other horticultural oils can be applied after the leaves are out. These oils may be called summer oil, superior or just horticultural oil. It is more highly refined than dormant oil, which means it is thinner and won’t damage leaves. Like dormant oil, however, these oils cover insects and smother them.
