Seeds of Wisdom: March 2010

Written by: Tama Malwaukie, Kylie Folkins-Cianciarulo and Jean Van Ausdall

Nursery

Welcome Spring!

March is the month that we welcome the first signs of spring. In your own garden, you may have spotted the first robins or noticed the sun rising a bit earlier and setting a tad later. The night time temps are starting to move closer to the high 40’s and low 50’s—an all important occurrence for those anxiously waiting to start their spring and summer gardens. The nursery is being re-stocked with fresh plants daily. Our 4700 square foot Patio Shop is loaded with 2010’s newest patio furniture and cushion trends along with exciting outdoor accessories. Hidden Treasures, our unique gift shop has been restocked with items reflecting the color and inspiration of spring! Let us help you get a jump start on all your spring projects with the right products and personalized assistance from our customer service pros.

Here are some suggestions of things to do this month that will help you accomplish your outdoor living goals and be successful in your garden this season.

• Fertilize your plants including roses, trees, shrubs, ferns, vines, perennials, citrus and all other fruit trees, with the exceptions of spring blooming azaleas, rhododendrons, and camellias. These can be fed after they finish blooming. The wonderful bonus of spring rains is that when you fertilize before a rain, the plant food gets naturally washed into the soil down to the roots without the need for you to water it in yourself. That saves you money and time! We recommend Dr. Earth All Purpose Fertilizer or specific Dr. Earth selections formulated for particular plants such as roses, fruit and citrus, vegetables, etc.

• All lawns will benefit from a feeding of one of several products. We stock organic choices including Dr. Earth Lawn Food, Down to Earth Bio-Turf, and Scotts Organic Lawn Food. We also carry a full line of Scotts Pro and Ace Lawn Fertilizers. If you struggle with summer weeds in your lawns, particularly spurge, crabgrass, and dandelion, you may want to try Scotts Turf Builder Plus Halts which, if applied this month, should help prevent these weeds from germinating as the weather warms. You’ll find this is a lot easier to do now than to battle them through the busy spring and summer months.

• Prune your cold tender plants this month after danger of frost (usually about Mar 15th). In some of our colder pockets, you may want to wait until the end of the month. Start trimming dead or damaged foliage and stems on the outer tips of the plant until you cut into green wood, then prune to shape the plant. Finish trimming back and cleaning all perennials and grasses that should be starting to show signs of new life.

• Check young fresh growth for damage by insects and pests, particularly aphids and slugs and snails. These can cause severe deformation and damage of new spring growth. Use Summit Horticultural Oil Spray for insects such as aphids and Sluggo Plus Snail and Insect Killer for control of slugs, snails, earwigs, pill bugs and cutworms.

• Wormy Apples??? Set out traps for codling moths approximately two months before blooms to help prevent worms in your apples. This is a totally safe product that will help reduce your need to spray later. If you trap a large population of moths or had a particularly heavy infestation of worms in your apples last year and want to take extra steps this year to prevent this, we recommend organic and safe to use (OMRI) Monterey Insect Spray (Spinosad). This should be sprayed in your area starting in April. Come in and let us help you get control!

• Although we are beginning to stock plant starts of many of your favorite warm season flowers and veggies like impatiens, petunias, and tomatoes. For most of our customers we recommend waiting to plant outdoors until the end of the March or any time in April. Night time temperatures should be close to 50 degrees or warmer to ensure a healthy start for these heat lovers. For those of you who want to try to start your gardens early, we do have several products that might allow you to get a jump start on the season including Season Starter (Wall-O-Water), Mini Greenhouses, Garden Frost Blankets and Cloud Cover. All these products help protect cold sensitive plants. You can still start many of these warm season plants by seed indoors this month and then plant them outdoors in April. We also have a super selection of organic seed potatoes from Irish Eyes that just arrived.

• If your garden needs some lush, rich color that is long lived, low maintenance, cold hardy and beautiful year-round; why not try introducing conifers to your landscape? This month we are having our annual clearance of these fantastic, unusual plants that are perfect for the collector, bonsai fans, and those who value beautiful color and texture in their landscape. They make a perfect backdrop for flowering bushes, trees, and perennials.

Visit our In-Store Specials page to print your savings coupon for items highlighted in green.

Plant Selection

Huge Selection Azaleas and Dogwood Trees Ready for Spring

Aside from the usual favorites that are becoming available this month, we are expanding our inventory of specially selected Azaleas by world renowned Jim Nuccio of Nuccio’s Growers. A large selection of Japanese Maples has arrived, as well as highly sought after Dogwood Trees.

Our current selection of Dogwoods includes:

Cornus florida ‘Rubra’- Eastern Dogwood Selection with light pink bracts.

Cornus florida ‘Cherokee Brave’- Eastern Dogwood Selection with deep pink bracts with white centers.

Cornus kousa x nuttallii ‘Starlight’- Disease Resistant Selection with large white bracts.

Cornus kousa ‘Heart Throb’- Disease Resistant Selection with deep red blooms.

Cornus kousa ‘Wolf Eyes’- Best Variegated Foliage Selection. White bracts with red-orange raspberry like fruit in summer.

Cornus kousa ‘Appalachian Way’- Disease Resistant Selection with large white bracts.

Cornus kousa ‘Milky Way’- Disease Resistant Selection with large white bracts.

Cornus nuttallii ‘Eddie’s White Wonder’- Disease Resistant Selection with large white bracts.

Cornus x rutdan ‘Celestial’- Disease Resistant Selection with large white bracts.

Cornus x rutgan ‘Stellar Pink’- Disease Resistant Selection with soft pink overlapping bracts.

Cornus x rutban ‘Aurora’- Disease Resistant Selection with large white bracts.

All plants, particularly trees, need to be planted carefully, so we recommend the following procedure to help ensure your plants success:

• Plant in moist but not wet soils.

• Gently loosen roots of plants.

• Dig a hole twice the width of the diameter of the root ball and about the same depth.

• Add 1/3 compost to 2/3 native soil when planting in the ground. Use a quality potting soil if planting in containers.

• Incorporate into backfill soil, bone meal, pre-plant fertilizers or Osmocote slow release fertilizer.

• Root ball of plants should be at or slightly above the final soil grade.

• Create a water well around new plant and water in thoroughly.

Visit our In-Store Specials page to print your savings coupon for items highlighted in green.

Gardening Supplies

Organic and Natural Additives Now Available!

We’ve added many new items to our stock of garden aids for your spring planting. One of the categories we’ve expanded is our organic and natural soil additive line from Down–To–Earth. New additions include:

Rock‘n Chicken (2-4-2) – This combination of soft rock phosphate and chicken manure is excellent for lawns and gardens.

All Purpose Mix (4-6-2) - A perfect fertilizer for veggies, herbs and flowers composed of humates, greensand and other natural ingredients.

Vegan Mix (3-2-2) - An all purpose fertilizer blended especially for the vegan gardener. Free from all animal by-products. It contains additions of AZOMITE and humates as well as other natural ingredients.

AZOMITE Soil Sweetener- A blend of volcanic minerals and calcium which helps to increase the availability of nutrients to plants by correcting soil ph for optimum plant growth.

Alfalfa Meal (2.5-1-1) – This is an excellent soil conditioner which is rich in trace elements and natural growth stimulants. It can also be used as a compost bio-activator due to its high organic matter and ideal Carbon-to-Nitrogen ratio.

Other items we stock from Down–To-Earth include: Greensand, Granular Humic Acids, Bio-Turf, Crab Meal, and Oyster Shell.

For all you Love Apple Farm tomato growing fans, we’ve also started stocking Sustane an all natural, organic slow release fertilizer. We stock it in two formulations, the 8-2-4 and 4-6-4. These are great products not only for your vegetable garden but also as an all purpose plant food for your entire landscape. Both have 10% humates blended in with natural potash and feathermeal.

We continue to stock some of your other favorite garden supplies including a Biodegradable Weed Free Garden Blanket and Complete Organic Growing System Kit (promotional price $24.99 reg. $89.99), EarthBoxes, Topsy Turvy Tomato planters, Tomato and Potato Planting Bags, Plantable Pulp Pots, Renee’s Seeds, Botanical Interest Seeds and Irish Eyes all Organic Seeds and Potatoes.

Let our experienced sales staff help guide you towards the right products for your projects.

Visit our In-Store Specials page to print your savings coupon for items highlighted in green.

Garden Décor

Consider Metal Art for Added Garden Beauty

If you’re looking for an attractive product to help keep you from pulling your hose through your favorite flowers and other plants look no further--we have stocked the item for you! We have a fun assortment of Decorative Hose Guides in a wide range of prices and styles that will fit your garden. They are actually garden ornaments that function as useful tools. Other additions to our garden décor lines include a wonderful assortment of Haitian Metal Art, hand created by artists in Haiti from recycled oil drums. They are amazing works of art that would look beautiful on fences and walls., We also recently received new shipments of metal art from a variety of suppliers as well as new statuary, fountains and birdbaths. Come in and visit us soon--.we think you’ll find something that adds beauty and interest to your outdoor living space or a friend’s garden!

Visit our In-Store Specials page to print your savings coupon for items highlighted in green.