Jeff Rice

The weather this spring has been mild except for a couple of warm days and a little rain, and long range forecasts, aside from a couple warm days this week, indicate seasonal temperatures as far out as the forecast goes, and hopefully all the way into June. We have had a beautiful spring this year. It’s a great time to do some gardening and planting. Check your watering systems and make sure all drippers and sprinklers are working. Don’t want to find out a dripper is not working when you see a dead or dying plant. Remember to mulch around your trees and shrubs. This will reduce your water usage by as much as 50% and your plants will withstand the warm days much better because the moisture you apply stays in the ground and does not evaporate. Two to three inches of mulch is what you want around your trees and in your planting beds. Also mulch your vegetable gardens. Saves water and gives you healthier plants and cuts down on the weeds. If you did not get fertilizing done in April, this is a good time to do it. Use a balanced fertilizer on almost everything. Azaleas, rhododendrons, …

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We are having another average water year this year, at least here at the nursery. By my rain tracking, we are at 27.25″. That’s three good rainfall years in a row so that’s some good news. Looking at the forecasts, looks like we are drying out and in for some nice spring weather after the latest storm passes. Been a little cool the past few days but really a nice spring under way. We have a large selection of vegetable starts, and bringing more out of our greenhouse as fast as we can, so we have a good selection of vegetables for the planting season. I preach to wait until the nighttime temperatures are consistently 50 degrees, or close to it and the ground needs to be warm to get good results from your vegetables. It looks like it’s starting to get there. Get your gardens prepped if you haven’t done that yet so you can plant your vegetable starts when the weather is right. No, it’s not late to plant. We are planning on planting the raised beds here at the nursery this coming weekend. I always use Bio-Live fertilizer and bone meal mixed in the soil before I …

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Winter weather has returned for a bit. It’s cold and raining as I write this, with some low snow levels. As I track the rainfall, we should be looking at about average rainfall this year. Last measure I had before this rain was 26 inches. Looks like it will continue a bit longer according to the forecast. It will stop soon though, and then we will be into a very nice spring. Wildflower blooms should be great this year, and water levels good from a good wet winter. 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 here at the nursery are fully leafed out except for a couple of rugosa varieties. If you have not pruned back roses, …

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Lots of things going on in December here at the nursery. BARE ROOT ROSES Our bare root roses are due to ship the second week of December. Once they arrive we will get them ready for sale. So hopefully they will be ready to go by the 14th or 15th. All pending shipping schedule, but my last communication with Weeks Roses, says they are shipping on the 11th. I will send out an email as soon as they are in and ready. BARE ROOT FRUIT TREES The bare root fruit trees will be in late in the month. Hopefully we will get them right before Christmas which has historically been when they come in. We will begin working them as soon as they arrive. Again I will let everyone know. I will send out emails as soon as things are in and ready to go. Complete lists of fruit trees and roses are available at the nursery, on our website, www.baldmountainnursery.com, or request one and I can send it to you via email. If you are wanting bare root fruit trees, don’t delay when they arrive. We don’t reorder bare root fruit trees. What comes in is what we have …

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The weather so far this fall has been a bit warm. The 10 day forecast shows it cooling down some at the end of this week and continuing cooler from there. Farmers almanac forecast I saw calls for a mild and wet winter for our area. I haven’t compared that to other long range forecasts, but there are an abundance of acorns on the oak trees this year which can be an indication of a wet winter to come.  Regardless of the forecasts, FALL IS THE BEST TIME OF YEAR FOR PLANTING TREES AND SHRUBS. Now is the best month for planting fall/winter vegetables. We have a great selection of organic winter vegetable starts in now. Fall fertilizing should be done as soon as the weather cools down. I would say you want to get it done over the next couple of weeks before the plants start showing lots of fall color. This fertilizing is important because it gives plants a good boost and also gives them stored food for winter. Next spring they will use that stored food for growth as soon as the weather warms. A balanced fertilizer is good for almost everything in the landscape. Citrus trees …

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The weather will be getting cooler soon. Fall is on the way. FALL IS THE BEST TIME FOR PLANTING. We have an excellent selection for fall planting and if we don’t have it in stock we can get it usually within a week. Fall fertilizing should be done this month. Use a balanced fertilizer for most of your trees and shrubs. We carry16-16-16 and organic all purpose fertilizer in 6# box, or 25# and 50# bags. If you have only a few plants, we also have it in 1# boxes. Be sure to fertilize your deciduous plants and perennials before they show signs of dormancy. Give your tomatoes a balanced fertilizer now and you should get more production out of them for another month, maybe longer. With the cooler weather coming, trees and perennials will start to go into dormancy probably in October. Weather depending. Fertilize citrus now, then let them go through the winter without feeding, but do protect them if there is freezing weather in the winter. Use a citrus fertilizer on your citrus trees. Give roses fertilizer now and enjoy some more blooms before the winter. This should be the last feeding for your roses. Use a rose …

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