March is a great time to get out into your garden and lawn areas and assess what can be done now for the upcoming season.
Garden Beds
- Remove leaves and debris from the garden and raised beds.
- Apply a pre-emergent such as Preen for weed control.
- If you didn’t cut back plants in the fall, now is the time to remove dead flowers and leaves.
- Perennial grasses should be cut back now about 6-12” from ground depending on the type of grass.
- Sow wildflower seeds, top dress with compost and water in.
- Fertilize any spring bulbs.
- Check your supply of plant stakes or trellises. Have on hand for tall perennials such as peonies, delphiniums or vines.
- Top dress entire bed with compost and water in.
Lawns
- Hand rake lawns to remove debris and encourage air movement in roots, apply a humic for soil improvement.
- Have lawn professionally thatched or aerated.
- Top dress with uneven spots with topsoil and/or peat moss. Reseed bare spots.
- Apply pre-emergent lawn fertilizer such as All Seasons (Fertilome), this will deter new weed seeds from germinating.
- Apply cool season weed control such as Weed Free Zone. An organic option would be corn gluten.
Shrubs & Trees
- Remove the tree wrap on young trees.
- Prune trees when they are bare so you can see branch structure. Remove dead and crossing branches.
- Cut back summer blooming shrubs such as Russian Sage, Butterfly Bush and Blue Mist Spirea.
- As shrubs come out of dormancy, the dead branches will become obvious and should be cut out.
- Cut dead ‘canes’ from the rose bush, they will be black or brown. Any canes that cross over each other should be cut out. Climbing roses should be cut back to approximately 3-4’.
Vegetables
- Remove debris, mix in some fresh compost or planter mix.
- Consider starting a ‘cover’ crop to your vegetable garden, it will grow quickly and die off when you are ready to plant vegetables.
- Start seeds indoors.
- Sow cool crops directly into beds now (carrot, beet, peas, lettuce, etc.).
Soil Improvements
- Colorado soil means Colorado clay. Prep is everything at the foundation.
- Use an organic humate as a bonus. This is perfect for your lawn area after aerating. Binding 3 different soil pore sizes. Clay pores up for better soil drainage and air to plant roots.
- Use Nature’s Yield Organic Compost and outdoor planter mix as a “soil cocktail” to any garden or raised bed.
- A clean topsoil is perfect for filling holes and dead spots in your lawn.
- Even in container gardens, the right soil is key. ProMix potting soil is light and well-draining for your houseplants, outdoor pots and hanging baskets.
