On the Home and Garden Show with Vance Co. Cooperative Ext.

THIS WEEK IN THE GARDEN

• Avoid the rush get your lawn mowers serviced before the mowing season starts.
• Get ready to plant your vegetable garden! Many cool season crops can be planted in mid-February. Get beds ready, check your seed supplies, and begin looking for quality transplants at local nurseries.
• Clean reorganized your garden sheds.
• Pick up some fertilizer for your tall fescue lawn. Get a slow release turf fertilizer for application in mid-Feb.
• On warm days 70F or warmer provide ventilation in greenhouses and cold frames if growing plants in them.
• If you use a turf fertilizer that’s combined with a weed or insect killer, remember that you are handling a pesticide! Read the instructions carefully and follow all precautions.
• Clean seedling trays 1 part bleach 9 parts water before adding media and planting seeds in the trays.
• Don’t purchase fruit crops without doing variety research first.
• Make your seed orders ASAP some varieties of seed are selling out fast.
• Get ready to do a dormant spray on your fruit trees. Also check your stock of chemicals and spray equipment so you’ll be ready to make the necessary treatments that start soon after flowering.

 

On the Home and Garden Show with Vance Co. Cooperative Ext.:

• Use sand instead of salt products on walkways and driveways during winter weather and sand don’t hurt plants like salt can.
• Cut dead foliage off of ornamental grasses. Take care not to cut into the crown or growing point, which is at the center close to ground level. Also trim last year’s foliage off liriope and mondograss.
• Check stored bulbs for decay.
• Inspect large shade trees for damage from the winter storm. Look for broken or hanging branches. If you can’t reach them from the ground with a pole saw, then hire a professional.
• Check your pruning equipment pruning season is just around the corner.
• Don’t wait until spring to plant trees and shrubs. Plant them anytime now that the ground is soft enough to dig, so they’ll get a head start.
• If you have seedlings started indoors check each day for moisture

 

What an odd weather forecast for the end of December and the start of January.  Temperatures have been well above normal with 70 plus degree highs this week and mid 70’s projected into the weekend before reality returns the first of the week with high temperatures on Monday staying in the 40’s but what can this unseasonable warm spell do to plants that have been dormant for winter?  Wayne Rowland with the Vance Co. Extension Service discussed that on the Home and Garden Show today (Wednesday) as part of the Local Skinny!  Rowland said that the warmth can effect many plants causing them to break dormancy. However, since we are still quite early in the winter season and the projected return of more normal temperatures next week damage to plants is not a major concern even if dormancy is broken.

“It’s a very unusual warm period,” Rowland said. “If it were to last two weeks it could be detrimental to plants,” Rowland continued. Rowland explained that any plant that has broken dormancy would return to that state once colder weather resumes.

One plant that may suffer are azaleas. Some people have reported that their azaleas are starting to bloom. Rowland says that since azaleas only have one set of blooms that these plants would have less blooms in the spring.

Wayne Rowland can be heard on Home and Garden Show along with Paul McKenzie every Wednesday at 11:30am as part of the Local Skinny! and the Vance Co. Cooperative Extension Report can be heard at 11:50am on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday on WIZS.

On the Home and Garden Show with Vance Co. Cooperative Ext.

• Get ready to start your 2022 garden journal
• Cooperative extension has Carolina Lawns publication that will give you information A to Z in lawn care
• Start planning your 2022 garden on paper now have a garden plan.
• Check Your trees health,with the leaves off the trees you can see any damage
• How current warm temperatures can affect your plants
• Inventory your seed before ordering more seed.
• Start preparing your seeding equipment for growing transplants
• Build a small greenhouse or cold frame to raise your own transplants for 2022

 

On the Home and Garden Show with Vance Co. Cooperative Ext.

 

THIS WEEK IN THE GARDEN

 

• Check garden tools if they need replacing add to your Christmas list

 

• Take a critical look at your shrubbery to decide what to replace.

 

• Water house plants with room temperature water cold tap water may put house plants in shock.

 

• Re-pot any houseplants that have become rootbound. Most plants benefit from repotting every year or so.

 

• Hairspray works well for keeping seed heads and dried flowers on wreaths and other decorations intact.

 

• Wood ashes have a liming effect and can be spread lightly in the garden.

 

• Dust houseplant leaves with a soft cloth

 

• Be very careful when using a chainsaw.

 

• Check water under your christmas tree each day