No better time to think spring to prep gardens, yards

Winter’s midpoint of Groundhog Day has passed, pitchers and catchers have reported for Major League Baseball spring training in Florida and Arizona, and anyone here might hit a homer in getting the garden and yard ready for the spring growing season, which is rounding the bases and headed for home plate soon.

Gary Forrester, senior regional horticultural agent for the Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service in Conway and Georgetown; and Thomas Woods, an agricultural technician for the N.C. Cooperative Extension’s Brunswick County office in Bolivia, each weighed in on some yard and gardening tasks worthy of attention this winter.

With their input, the north and south parts of the Grand Strand – on each side of what WPDE-TV 15 Chief Meteorologist Ed Piotrowski calls “the Border Belt” – are covered as well.

Woods also said, overall, going from this winter into spring, “there will be a lot of undesirable response from plants because of the amount of groundwater that we’ve had all winter long.” Yet with signs of spring on the horizon, and gardening enthusiasm already heating up, “we’re coming out of dormancy and getting ready to bring it on.”

Question | What are some primary tasks to address in the yard, gardens and lawn before spring arrives?

Forrester | Other than addressing drainage problems if they exist, there is not much to do in the lawn before green-up other than pre-emergant herbicide applications – February and May, which are also good times to prune late-summer blooming plants.

Woods | This is the for cleanup. February is typically the month you need to get out and make sure you pick up dead foliage and debris, and dead flowers under any of those plants that blossom in the fall. ... Get out now, before the spring rains. ...

Get a soil test, and if you do have to do any pH adjustments in your yard, ... add sulphur to lower the pH or lime to raise the pH. Also, with the N.C. Cooperative Extension, free soil testing is available for free, April 1 through Nov. 30, and $4 from Dec. 1 through March 31.

Question | When is the correct time to fertilize grass for the first time in a new year?

Forrester | First grass fertilization will be when the grass has thoroughly greened up, usually in late April into May.

Woods | Centipede grass is commonly used where you are. Fertilize that in the last of May or first week of June. That’s the earliest you want to put nitrogen on it. If you have a wedding planned earlier, green it up with iron.

Question | When is the best time – after the season’s last frost – and what rules are vital, in trimming older, faded fronds on a palm tree?

Forrester | On palm trees, remove only dead, brown fronds; they can be removed anytime.

Question | What signals the end of the dormant period to begin pruning roses, and what steps are essential, especially among the different types of roses – climbers, old-fashioned, and ground cover?

Forrester | Roses are generally pruned back, mid-March to mid-April. On hybrid teas, cut back to about a foot, grandiflora back to about 2 feet, and the same with the old-fashioned climbers: cut out the older canes, allowing new ones to grow.

Woods | Roses are to be pruned now. ... Most people have Knock Out roses; you can cut those from 5 feet in height to 18 inches, and they will do fine. For climbers, pick two or three of the youngest main stalks to keep, and clear all the others to the ground. With ground-cover shrub roses, which need very little pruning, cut those back to about a foot.

Question | Every winter, many people get overeager to cut and top off crape myrtles, leaving them looking like knuckles, damaging them long term, and leaving the ugliest aftermath. What advisories come to play with keeping crepe myrtles beautiful?

Forrester | Crape myrtles should only have crossing branches in the interior of the plant removed, in February.

Woods | Late January to early March is the time to do needed pruning on tree-form crape myrtles. The important concept here is needed pruning; we aren’t going to dwell on the barbaric practice of topping these beautiful plants.

Question | With muhly bushes, which bloom in autumn in such radiant lavender and pink, the plants are full of brown blades at this time of year, with some much shorter, green ones. In some housing developments, they’ve been mowed way down. What is the right way and time to trim muhly clumps?

Forrester | You can cut them back now as far back as you want.

Woods | The time to prune all ornamental grasses is February. Cut them down to 8-12 inches. You do not have to do this; however, they tend to die out in their centers if you don’t.

Question | What other preparations are needed for flowerbeds, ahead of perennials springing up – never mind that some daffodils have bloomed in the past couple of weeks?

Forrester | Not much to do in flower beds this time of year, either, other than remedial pruning and mulch renovation. Improving any drainage issues is also important.

Woods | Sometimes people call in, saying, “I have this beautiful daffodil bed, which had blossoms for a couple of years, and now it’s doesn’t bloom.” They will overcross themselves, and when you have that, you need to dig them up and spread them out. You have too many bulbs in too small a space.

This story was originally published February 21, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "No better time to think spring to prep gardens, yards."