GARDENING

March 2001 Table of Contents

GARDENING
by Jack Hardy

It's that time of year when we get signs in the garden that the party will soon be over. The advent of spring means warmer weather and our winter vegetables will begin to struggle. Any plantings made in March or later should be of tropical or heat-resistant varieties of vegetables.

In the flower beds and borders, the same applies. Forget about Impatiens; it's time for Vincas, Cosmos, Zinnias and other heat-loving flowers.

Spring, summer and autumn are the times to feed your citrus and other fruit trees. Apply granular fertilizer to sodden ground near to the trunk and around the drip line. Then apply a chelated iron drench then spray the leaves with a minor nutrient concentrate.

Insect activity will increase with the temperature. If you use a soap spray every week year round your plants and trees are unlikely to become infested. If you are the average gardener, you react when you see a problem. Use the weakest form of effective treatment and try to make it as specific as possible. If a problem insect arrives en masse, its predator usually arrives soon afterwards.

Scale insects have few predators, so it is important to check your flowering shrubs and fruit trees for scale. Snow scale is particularly insidious as it is hard to detect in its early stages. It looks like a light dusting of talc. In sandy areas you might mistake it for sand thrown up by a shower of rain. Left untreated, snow scale will slowly but surely kill its host. Ethion and oil is the recommended treatment for snow and various other scale insects.

March 2001 Table of Contents