Happy New Year?

March 2012

PICKAWAY TO GARDEN

Happy New Year?

By Paul Hang

For some reason I find it hard to believe that March is already here. Perhaps it is because we have had so little winter. Usually, by now, we have experienced so many days of cold and dreary weather that we are grateful for the promise of spring. But as I write this this winter has been pretty puny, so far.

Robert Frost accurately described the weather in March in one of his poems. When we have a sunny day with a chill wind it feels like April. When the day is sunny and the wind still we feel we are in May. "But if you so much as dare to speak/ A cloud comes over the sunlit arch/ A wind comes off a frozen peak/ And you're two months back in the middle of March." March weather is unsettled and unpredictable. It makes me impatient for it to settle down. Just when I think I can get out and begin the new gardening year, along comes a nasty day that makes me postpone the anticipated season. But let's enjoy the forced leisure.

Regardless of our experience, the orb we reside on (whether we asked for the ride or not) continues inexorably to hurtle through space rotating about its axis and revolving around our sun. As that axis ceases to point away from the sun and reaches the point where it is half-way between pointing away and pointing towards the sun that point marks the equinox. This happens twice a year. The last time it marked the end of summer. This time it marks the end of winter, and as winter ends, spring begins with the spring equinox which arrives on March 20. The Romans began their new year in March and gardeners should too. After all it is pretty arbitrary when the New Year begins. Why not begin the year when the days are getting longer and warmer and the plants are beginning to spring to life? And gardeners are springing to life too. It is truly the beginning of the New Year. Let's have a spring's eve party on the 19th.

While we are getting our astronomical bearings look to the sky at night. We have our last chance to see the winter constellation that I like to think of as the Irish constellation, Orion! Soon it will no longer be visible until next winter. This also marks the end of winter.

March also begins daylight savings time. Everything that's old is new again. Plants begin to bloom, animals are generating a new generation. Birds are returning. Some have already nested. Buds are swelling. The sap has been running, people are walking and some bugs are crawling. It is the beginning. Happy New Year!

A gardener acquaintance of mine, Rusty Scab, drops by occasionally to talk gardening, ask for odd jobs and sometimes ask for a loan. Last time he asked me about an ad he saw in a gardening catalog for silver plastic mulch. The ad claimed that silver mulch causes insects such as thrips, aphids and white flies to avoid the area near your plants. It is touted as protecting tomatoes from spotted wilt virus and is good for all vegetable plants. Ever the skeptic I checked it out on Ohioline.osu.edu and sure enough aluminum foil used as mulch has proved to be effective in repelling insects that carry viruses Rusty, always frugal, is saving those silver lined plastic bags such as potato chips and Began Strips come in. He plans to use them around his veggies this summer. Hopefully with the shiny side up. It seems to me to be a good organic technique and a good way to recycle, a twofer. I am going to try it too.

I'd like to pat my fellow Pickaway County Master Gardener Volunteers on the back. We accumulated 1060 hours of volunteer activities and 358 hours of advanced training last year. National studies claim that volunteering is worth over $20 per hour to our communities. In addition we trained 16 new Master Gardener Volunteer interns. The New Year promises to provide even more opportunities for service.

Things to do in the garden:

Begin fertilizing houseplants with a weak solution. March is not too late to try winter sowing. What is winter sowing? Google it.

Plan to start your seeds for hardy plants. Wait till later in the month to start the half hearty plants like tomatoes. Of course with the mild winter, and if the forecast is for a warmer spring, don't be afraid to try and push the (seed) envelope. Experiment with a few plants. Who knows, you might be the first in your neighborhood to produce a ripe tomato and win the tomato wars. Always check the seed envelope for planting information.

Late March and April is the time to apply a pre-emergent to the lawn to prevent crabgrass. Last year was a bumper crop of crabgrass in my lawn so there will be lots of seeds lying in wait to ambush the remaining grass. But be forewarned, pre-emergents prevent seeds from sprouting. If you plan to seed any parts of your lawn, to repair damage from winter or from our summer drought, don’t apply a pre-emergent to those areas. This also applies to areas where you plan to plant other seeds, whether flowers or vegetables. If you still want to control crabgrass stay clear of those areas and apply on a calm day.

Consider planting deciduous trees in March. If you haven’t ordered trees do it now. Pruning and spraying fruit trees will soon be required, if not already. Consult OSU Extension bulletins for the specifics at www.ohioline.osu.edu. These chores can be intimidating for us beginners.

Speaking of trees, I will continue to harp on one of my pet peeves, the topping of trees. It has been in the news at a local cemetery and we don't have to look far to see the example of this hideous practice. Our own city has allowed the practice on all the locust trees downtown. Trees can be pruned properly by a certified arborist. Just because someone owns a chain saw and pruners and is standing on your porch warning you about your "overgrown" trees and shrubs it doesn't mean that the work needs to be done or that they are qualified to do it. Check www.arborday.org or our old standby www.ohioline.osu.edu for advice. In the New Year let's turn over a new leaf. Trees matter