The Whistling Gardener

by Steve Smith

Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville, located at 3915 Sunnyside Blvd., and a respected local expert on all things horticultural. You can reach Steve at 425-334-2002 or by e-mail at [email protected].

Whew! Where do I begin? This season is coming on so fast that it is making my head spin. I've still got a ton of stuff to do in my garden before I can even think about planting new things, and yet every time we get a shipment of plants in, I want to grab a few for my own yard. Here's what we need to focus on this month.

Veggie gardens-It's all about the cool season crops. Root crops, leaf crops, peas and the Brassicas (those are the cabbages, cauliflowers, kale, broccoli and Brussels sprouts) all need to go in now. For carrots and beets I like using "seed strips." These are seed packets with the seeds pre-spaced on a strip of paper so you don't have to go back and thin. You can cut the strips into any length you want too. It's a way cool way to plant and not worry about thinning later. When I plant my peas I soak them first in water for 3-4 hours and add an inoculant to the soil to help the peas "fix" nitrogen.

I love planting potatoes even though I realize it makes poor financial sense. Spuds are so easy to grow and a total hoot to harvest. It's great fun for the kids and grandkids, and you can grow crazy ones like fingerlings and blue potatoes. Don't forget to keep adding dirt around the stem as they grow. You can increase your harvest ten fold.

Asparagus, horseradish and rhubarb are all perennial veggies that need to go in the ground now. Since these are permanent crops we need to take extra care to enrich the soil with compost and slow release fertilizers.

Berries-all berries, whether straw, blue, black, boysen, logan, rasp or you name it, need to be planted now. Strawberries do well in either the ground or a container but the rest need more soil to roam. Again, put extra energy into preparing the ground before planting. EB Stone (Greenall) has a totally awesome product called Soil Booster that is a super-charged compost fortified with earth worm casting and chicken manure that I just love. It's about a buck more a bag than plain compost, but well worth it in my book.

Roses-for those of us who still have the patience to mess with roses, we know it's about time to finish (or start for some of us) pruning. "Knee high in the spring" is the motto we should follow for most hybrid teas, grandifloras and floribundas. Old English and climbers need to be left taller. Remove the winter mulch (hopefully we remembered to put it on last fall) and spread it around the ground and mix in some fertilizer and lime. There is no need to spray until the new growth is at least 6 inches long, but if we really want to get ahead of the game, we will apply a new product by Bonide that combines a systemic insecticide and a systemic fungicide. Simply dilute according to instructions and pour over the soil underneath the rose. Bingo! We just immunized our roses against bugs and diseases for 6-8 weeks.

Lawns-this should be the last month we have to look at a lousy lawn. Over the winter the moss will fill in everywhere and now is the time to get rid of it. Iron sulfate works the best, in my opinion, and is the most cost-effective. It turns the moss black and the grass green. After a couple of weeks we can rake out the lawn, over seed if necessary and fertilize and lime, and we are good to go for the season. I have been using only organic fertilizers on my small back lawn for three years now and it has never looked better. They have a higher up-front cost than synthetics, but last much longer and in the long haul give us a much healthier lawn and environment. So don't cheap out on the lawn food 'cause it will just come back to haunt you.

Perennials-we need to get busy and finish cutting back our perennials and ornamental grasses before the new growth gets in the way and we damage it. This is the perfect time to divide hostas and asters and daylilies and black-eyed Susan or just about any perennial except for those that are getting ready to bloom. Divide those just after they finish blooming. Once we've done our trimming and dividing and weeding, then apply a slow release fertilizer and a weed preventer like corn gluten or Preen and a fresh layer of compost and we should be home free, except for staking and deadheading, which is still a couple months away.

I know there is lots more to do, but I am out of room for this week. Stop by your favorite garden center and see what's new and pick up whatever you need for the month of March. Better hurry though. It will be April before you know it.

Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville and can be reached at 425-334-2002 or online at [email protected]