After a dry February and dry start to March, there is now showing a chance for some rain early next week and maybe a bit more later in the 10 day forecast. Hopefully it comes to fruition. As far as watering goes right now, just water enough to keep newly planted bare root trees or other newly planted items moist. The ground does not dry out very fast with the cool nights and mild days. It is not necessary to water a lot yet. I’m watering trees in the new orchard about once every two weeks right now. Once they are in full leaf I will step that up a bit. Probably once a week or so. And when I get the drip system set up to where they can get a good deep soak, then once a week will be sufficient for the entire watering season. I do have 3″ of mulch around the trees as well.
It is now time to get ready to start fertilizing soon. As soon as deciduous trees and shrubs have their full set of leaves, you should give them their first fertilizing of the year. A balanced fertilizer works well for most things. Use a rhododendron, camellia, azalea fertilizer for your acid loving plants. Fertilize azaleas and rhododendrons after they are done blooming. Same thing for camellias. Citrus should use a citrus fertilizer. Citrus are best fertilized monthly through the growing season. Start after the threat of frost is past and continue monthly through October.
Roses should be leafing out now. If you have not pruned back roses, it is still a good time to do it. If you have any that are really large cause of neglected pruning during prior seasons, prune them down now. Prune roses down to 12 to 24 inches tall with several strong canes left and an open center.
Be sure to start spraying roses with a fungicide now. We use Neem Oil every two weeks here at the nursery on the roses to prevent aphids and fungus problems.
It’s time to start fertilizing roses as well. Roses are heavy feeders. They should be fertilized about every 6 weeks. Use a rose food or you can use a balanced all purpose fertilizer as well. I use a combination of the two on my roses and it works very well.
SPRING VEGETABLE PLANTING
We have some of our summer vegetable starts now and will be getting restocks weekly for the next two to three months depending how the season goes. We also have the greenhouse full of vegetable starts that will be ready for planting the first week of April or so, which honestly is the better time to plant your summer vegetables. Watch the weather. A good rule of thumb is to wait till overnight lows are consistently 50 degrees or higher and the ground is no longer cold to the touch. Prep your soil well before you plant. Add bone meal or oyster shell to the soil along with the vegetable fertilizer when you are prepping the soil. Bone meal adds phosphorous for root development and supplements calcium. Oyster shell adds calcium. Calcium will help to prevent blossom end rot. I use organic fertilizer on my vegetable garden. I use bone meal for phosphorous, and oyster shell for calcium , and tomato and vegetable fertilizer and kelp meal. Kelp meal helps to prevent diseases. About half way through the season I re apply fertilizer and bone meal.
AAUW GARDEN TOUR
The 28th Garden Tour will be held on Saturday, May 7, 2022. Tour fabulous gardens in Marysville and Yuba City, plus an afternoon drop-in reception on the patio at THE BRICK COFFEE HOUSE in Marysville from noon until 4pm. $25 tickets are available now online at mvyc-ca.aauw.net/garden-tour-tickets.
Recycle your used containers here at the nursery. We gladly take back all used nursery containers. We re-use them in our growing operations. Don’t send them to the land fill. They can be dropped off here anytime during our regular business hours. Let us know if you have them with you when you come in, and we can unload them for you.
A note on our hours. We are open 9 to 5 Monday through Saturday and 10 to 4 Sunday.
We hope to see you soon.
Jeff
