Planning For Early Spring In the Garden With Madison Flower Shop & Garden Center

Remember Easter Sunday – March 31

Full selection of cut flowers,
spring plants, bulbs and container gardens

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 Early Spring Spring in the
Garden:

Raking will be your first task of
spring lawn care to remove left over fall leaves and thatch.   A thatch build-up of more than 1/2 inch is
considered excessive.   But there's often
another good reason for a spring raking. 
As you survey your lawn in spring, see if there are any matted patches,
in which the grass blades are all stuck together. This can be caused by a
disease known as "snow mold." New grass may have difficulty
penetrating these matted patches. A light raking will be sufficient to solve
this problem.

Time
to Lime.  Since grass likes a neutral soil pH, you can
solve this problem adding lime using a lawn spreader.

Lawns like any plant need proper
nutrition.  A well-fed lawn is healthier,
thereby has a better root system to combat stresses such as heat, cold,
drought, mowing and foot traffic.  Now is
the time to apply your first lawn treatment. 
Apply Jonathan Green’s Step 1
to control crabgrass before and after it germinates while feeding your lawn.

Plant cool-season varieties, such as radishes, peas, lettuce, broccoli, and
cauliflower as soon as you can work the ground this month -- these plants
survive frosty weather. While you're out, add some pansies to your spring vegetable
garden. They'll add color,
and you can use the cheery blooms in salads.

By
now you should have some idea of what perennials survived the winter and what
needs to be replaced. Divide perennials
this month. This is also a good time to move plants that may not have been
well placed last season.

It’s
time to plant bulbs. Prepare hole
with a bit of bone meal first, then plant.

Plant
trees and shrubs now to give them
plenty of time to get established before the summer.

Finally,
you should fluff up last year's mulch and add additional mulch as needed to your garden. An important point to
remember is that you should have 2 to 4 inches of mulch on your garden to hold
in moisture and heat.