~ February 27, 2008 ~

It's About Time!
Signs of spring are turning up everywhere. There are buds on Forsythia and Red Bud's, bulbs are pushing through the ground and birds have begun to sing their joyous spring song. It is hard not to be excited by what is taking place outside. 45 today and maybe even 60's by the weekend. Mother Nature is sending us signals that the time is near. The first day of spring, March 20th is just 23 days away. Will March arrive like a lion or a lamb? Will we get more snow? Will we be treated to some mild thunderstorms? Questions for a month that is so unpredictable. It brings me sheer happiness just to write about it.

Leavenworth's 2nd Annual Home & Garden Show,"No Place Like Home" is Saturday, March 8th from 10am to 6pm and Sunday, March 9th from 11am to 4pm, at the Riverfront Community Center downtown Leavenworth, Kansas. There will be home decor, home improvement, garden and landscape exhibits, demonstrations, and FREE drawings every hour. A benefit drawing will be held for a $1699 Simmons Memory Foam Mattress donated by Dolsberry Appliance/Mattress Direct. Karen Mills, nationally known designer and radio host of the program KMBZ 980 Living Large will speak Saturday on "REDESIGN", the secret to transforming your homes interior and on Sunday "Goin' Green", a gorgeous alternative! Also speaking on Saturday is Dr. Alan Stevens from Kansas State University. He will speak on planting foliage plants with flowers for great impact. The Leavenworth Master Gardeners and Vendors will be speaking on Container Gardening, Mosaic Stepping Stones, Monarch Butterfly Way Stations, Composting and several other topics. There will be a few demonstrations where the attendee can pay a small fee to participate and take something home. Sign up will be available for limited attendee participation. Admission is $5.00. The Great Oz Sponsor this year is Westlake ACE Hardware. For more information visit www.LeavenworthMainStreet.com.

Feeding Bulb Upstarts
If you have spring bulbs in the ground we'll bet that at least some of them are poking up through the soil by now (photo).  Last week we talked about moving any leaves or compost out of the way to make room for their growth.  This week we tackle their care and feeding.

"You need to fertilize as soon as the foliage pokes up through the ground. That's when the bulbs' roots are most active," said Ward Upham, horticulturist with Kansas State University Research and Extension. "If you wait until or after they're flowering, you're basically wasting time and money."

Springtime Splitters...
Now would be a great time to think about dividing select perennials.  We say this in the fall also.  Don't be confused.  Just use the following logic:  Divide fall-blooming plants in the spring and spring-blooming plants in the fall.  Plants to divide now include asters, mums, shasta daisy, and yarrow (to name a few).

Just Can't Wait
If you are just dying to do something in the flower garden try sowing the seeds of asters, bachelor buttons, calendulas, delphinium, dianthus, larkspur, and snapdragon.  These hardy annuals should weather the remaining cold days and get your flower garden off to an early start.  As insurance against really cold weather you can always sow smaller quantities at weekly intervals.

Peas Be With You...
Peas should be among the earliest crops you plant in your garden, and can be planted as soon as the soil can be worked. They love cool weather, grow quickly, produce abundantly for a few weeks, and then succumb rapidly to our summer heat. More pea stuff:

• Some varieties, especially snap peas, require trellising, but many modern varieties do not. Seed catalogs or packets usually will indicate whether this is required.
• Because plants don't stand very well on their own, peas may benefit from being planted in double rows 6" apart that will allow plants to support each other.
• Peas should be planted 1 inch deep and 2 inches apart with about 2 to 3 feet between the double row. If trellised, space rows 4 to 6 feet apart.
• Plant several varieties to make sure you get each type, and to enjoy a succession of harvests.

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Crown Jewels...
Once the soil is suitable for digging you may be thinking about planting some asparagus crowns.  Don't dig too far down when planting them.  Yields improve dramatically when crowns are set at a depth of 5 to 6 inches - not the commonly advised 12 inches.  Contrary to the standard practices of deep planting and not harvesting for up to three seasons, recent studies show that harvesting shallow-planted asparagus after the first year boosts yields 40 percent over three years.

Warm Season Weeds...
Warm-season grasses (bermudagrass, zoysiagrass and buffalograss) need a different set of instructions than those for more common cool-season grasses (bluegrass and fescues).  If you have warm-season grasses you can use the month of March to spot-treat broadleaf weeds. Make sure to spot-treat on a day that is 50°F or warmer. Rain or watering within 24 hours of application will reduce the effectiveness of your efforts.

Head 'Em Off At The Pass...
Though cultural practices are the most effective crabgrass controls, herbicides are often necessary to really get the job done.  Crabgrass can be controlled through an application of a pre-emergence herbicide between mid-March and mid-April.  The herbicides available on the market have been shown to be very effective crabgrass controls, but often control suffers when the product is not applied correctly or when the lawn is not maintained properly.  When using pre-emergence herbicides, keep in mind:

• Maintain a healthy dense lawn.
• Closely read and follow all label recommendations.
• Apply the herbicide accurately and uniformly over the lawn.
• Apply the herbicide early because they will not affect crabgrass already germinated. Early would be mid- March in the greater Kansas City area.
• After application, apply enough water to move the herbicide off the leaf blades to the soil surface for maximum control.
• Do not apply these products over newly-seeded areas or try to seed into areas where these products have been recently applied.

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Finally...
"Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does."

~ George Bernard Shaw