The Hort Report: It’s a good time to clean and fertilize your yards and begin to plan your garden

The past few days have really been great for outdoor work. The next few weeks look like the days will be warm, but the nights will be at or below the freezing mark. 

I have had several people ask if they should be cleaning off their flowerbeds. I have noticed several different types of perennials in our flowerbeds that are starting to come up. I plan on leaving the cover that I have on the flowerbeds for several more weeks. 

During the past several years, we have had either a good snow or very cold weather during the last weekend in March. The cover will protect the perennials from the cold and allow the perennials to grow through it. 

Now is a good time to clean off your yards. Picking up sticks and raking any old leaves, dead grass and other things covering your yard. In the past few days, I have noticed you can see the grass is starting to green up. Once you rake your yard, you will let the sun and warmer weather help the grass start to green up. 

Once you have done your raking, you will see if you need to sow any new grass seed. If you do, you have the yard ready for it. Just sow it, and then if we don’t get any rain for a while, you can go back and rake the yard again, thus covering the new grass seed. As the ground warms, the seed will be there to start to germinate. 

Now is also a good time to put on any fertilizer for your yard. You can put on a dry fertilizer with weed killer in it, helping to kill off any unwanted weeds in your yard. The only problem with this is if you sowed any new grass seed, it would kill it too. When using any type of weed killer in your yard, wait at least 60 to 90 days before sowing new grass seed. 

When picking a fertilizer to use on your yard, use a balanced fertilizer like a 12-12-12 if you haven’t taken any soil samples. You still have several months to be putting on a dry yard fertilizer. 

I know of a few people who have been trying to get cool-season vegetables in the garden. I was looking at my garden, and it is starting to get to where you can be getting in there in a few more days. You also need to know that for this part of Missouri, there is a 50 percent chance of a killing frost or freeze during the first week of April.

We have a few weeks to get ready for major garden planting. I know I have used this same garden plan picture several times over the years. Use this as a guide to help with your garden planting. Also look at the vegetable planting and harvesting guide. 

If you like to have a big garden, ask your friends and neighbors what they like. Anything surplus you have can be sold at the Farmers Market in Shelbina on Saturdays. 

Let’s look at the garden plan. You want take the list that you made from asking people and then draw a picture of your garden. Draw on your garden plan picture where you are going to plant which vegetables. Compare your list to the vegetable planting and harvesting guide. This will help you know when you plant a vegetable how long it will take to harvest it. The distance between the rows of each type of vegetable will be determined by the size of your garden and how much you want to grow.

You can also double up on certain parts of your gardens. This is where the garden plan comes in handy. Several types of vegetables can grow next to each other. By using the garden plan and vegetable planting and harvesting guide, you can see what vegetables you can plant early in what part of the garden, then come back in after you harvest them and plant in the same place. This will allow you to get more from your garden space. 

I say, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” I hope you can use the garden plan and vegetable planting and harvesting guide to help you have the best garden you have ever had. 

Thanks for all of your questions in the past. I look forward to seeing them in the future. If you have questions, please call me at Shelby County Implement at 573-588-2040. Hope everyone enjoyed the great weather we have had the past few days.