* Plan your summer vegetable and herb garden. We offer a wide selection of seeds that include all of your favorite annuals, perennials, vegetables and other novelties as well as many hard-to-find selections. Inventory pots and flats used for seedlings and discard unusable ones and make a list of the supplies you will need. Have your garden soil tested for nutrient content. We offer a variety of do-it-yourself soil test kits.
* Prune woody plants while dormant, including fruit trees, summer- and fall-blooming shrubs and vines. Limit pruning of spring-blooming trees and shrubs to removal of sucker growth and rubbing, overgrown or broken branches. Spray trees and shrubs with Bonide All-Season Spray to reduce insect population.
* Sharpen, clean and oil tools and lawn mowers. Begin heavy annual pruning of shrub roses as new leaves appear.
* Plant pansies, English daisies and primrose as soon as the earth is workable. Plant strawberry plants. Sow cool-season vegetables and herbs in the garden.
* Start spring cleanup and begin major lawn work. Remove debris, dethatch your lawn or aerate compacted areas to improve water penetration.
* Spray for spider mites with Bonide All-Season Spray on needles and limbs of Arborvitae, Cryptomeria, false cypress, fir, hemlock, Juniper, pine, yew and spruce (except blue spruce).
* Apply Espoma Flower-Tone to perennials and roses with Espoma Rose-Tone. Feed berry bushes, grapevines, rhubarb and asparagus with Espoma Garden-Tone before new growth begins. Fertilize trees and shrubs with Jobes Tree & Shrub Spikes or Espoma Tree-Tone.
*Apply Crabgrass Preventer with Fertilizer to feed the lawn and control crabgrass.
* Continue spring cleanup. Cultivate to remove winter weeds and debris from the planting beds. Apply Preen or Preen n’ Green and scratch it in to prevent future weeds.
* Reseed bare spots in established lawns. Keep the area moist until seedlings appear, then mow when the new grass is 3″ high.
* Prune forsythia and other spring-flowering trees & shrubs after the flowers fall.
* Dig and divide crowded early spring bulbs after they finish blooming. Enrich the soil with Espoma Bone Meal or Espoma Bulb-tone.
* Plant and transplant trees and shrubs, including roses, ground covers, and perennials.
* Transplant cool-season seedlings into the garden. When the soil temperature reaches 60 degrees, sow warm- and cool-season vegetable and herb seeds.
* Place gro-thru sets over peonies, grasses or any other perennials in need of support.
