Chalet Virtual Learning Series | Prepping the Spring Garden

Lawn Care

Check for salt damage on turf & evergreens. Apply gypsum to soil to try and counteract harmful effect of sodium-based deicing products.
Raking - Remove leaves and winter litter as needed.
Seeding - Whether overseeding thin lawns or seeding bare areas create furrows to catch the seed. Don’t bury the seed and don’t cover with peat moss!
Fertilizing - First application can go down as turf is coming out of dormancy. Examples: Lawn Restore (10-0-6), Espoma Lawn Fertilizer (18-0-3), Nature Safe (18-0-4), Espoma Organic Lawn Food (9-0-0), Milorganite (5-2-0). Consider including a crabgrass pre-emergent.

Bed prep for annual, vegetable beds

Apply 1-2” of organic matter (Chalet leaf mulch, Chalet Organic Compost, Cotton Burr Compost, dehydrated manure, your own compost) over the surface of beds. Till or dig in to incorporate.
Apply an organic fertilizer like Dr. Earth Tomato, Vegetable & Herb (5-7-3), Dr. Earth Bud & Bloom (4-10-7), Espoma Plant-Tone (5-3-3) or Holly-Tone (4-3-4).
Frost hardy annuals include: pansies, violas, snapdragons, stocks, ranunculus, sweet peas, alyssum, nemesia, diascia, dianthus, bacopa, lobelia and osteospermum.
Frost hardy veggies include: lettuce, cabbage, kale, spinach, onions, chard, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts and root crops.

Perennials

Finish cutting back anything you left up for winter interest. Do as early as possible to avoid damaging emerging perennials.
Some evergreen perennials may need to be neatened up and winter-tattered leaves removed.

Put hoops, rings, peony cages, and support structures that plants have to grow through in place now.
Apply organic fertilizers like Dr. Earth Bud & Bloom Booster (4-10-7) or Espoma Flower-tone (3-4-5) per label directions.
Apply 1-2” layer of growing season mulch. Ex: Chalet leaf mulch, cotton burr compost.
Consider preventative applications of fungicides to disease-susceptible perennials as stems emerge from dormancy.
Apply Sluggo to newly emerged hostas and ligularia when air temperatures reach 70° F. or higher to reduce slug damage.
Apply pre-emergent control products before weed seedlings show up.
Consider repellents (Plantskydd or Repels-All Spray and Spray with Hose ) if you’ve had deer or rabbit issues. High profile spring targets are newly emerging: hostas, roses and daylilies.

Roses

As daytime temperatures stabilize in the 40s and the overwintering mulch thaws, start deconstructing the mound. Spread to use as summer mulch.
Prune when reddish-pink buds start swelling enough to give you a sense of what’s alive and what isn’t. Look for the junction where dead (brown) tips become green stems.
The harder you prune, the more stems you will get. Prune to an outward facing, swelling bud on green stems to direct growth.
Dispose of any leaf debris from the previous year to reduce potential disease start-up.
Make first fertilizer application (see Perennial fertilizer recommendations or Bayer All-in-One Rose & Flower Care-a fertilizer, insect and disease control) when you have fully opened leaves.
If your rose bed is unmulched apply 1-2” Chalet leaf mulch, Cotton Burr Compost or shredded pine mulch.

Spring flowering bulbs

Rake off any wind-blown debris.
Apply fertilizer to the bed as foliage peeks out. Bulb-tone (3-5-3) is a good analysis for spring flowering bulbs.
Consider repellents (Plantskydd or Repels-All Spray and Spray with Hose ) if you fear deer or rabbit issues- tulips and crocus can be targets.

Ground cover

If you covered with evergreen boughs for winter remove now.
Cut out/back any winter burn to English ivy. Thin, if necessary, to improve air circulation.
Remove as much leaf accumulation as possible in all ground covers to reduce the likelihood of future disease problems.
Check: Euonymus for scale and Pachysandra for stem blight. Respond accordingly.

Trees & Shrubs

Remove tree wrap, protective trunk cylinders, burlap screens.
Check for broken branches, dead plants. Any time there is dead wood it needs to be removed. Use proper pruning techniques!
Maintenance pruning rule - If it blooms before July 1 it’s blooming on last summer’s growth and shouldn’t be pruned unless you’re willing to sacrifice flowers.
If it blooms after July 1 it’s blooming on spring and early summer growth and can be pruned late winter or early spring with no loss of flowers.
Know your plants, learn their susceptibilities. Ex: Older crabapples tend to be scab-prone (disease). It can be controlled with preventative fungicide applications as the leaves start emerging.
Apply sulfur to acid-loving plants: azaleas, blueberries, hollies, rhododendrons and hydrangeas (if you want pink varieties to be blue) to acidify our alkaline soils. Must be applied directly to bare soil, not over mulch, to affect a change in pH.
Fertilize as desired with Espoma Tree-tone (6-3-2) or Holly-tone (4-3-4).
After winter debris has been cleared it’s time to beef up mulch. Apply a 2” layer of shredded hardwood or pine, chunk bark, leaf mulch or cotton burr compost. Leave a donut-sized opening around the trunks of trees or the stems of shrubs.
Apply pre-emergent weed control to beds before weeds show up.