Tend To Buds, Sprouts And Other Harbingers Of Spring In The March Garden

Adding plants that help attract pollinators such as butterflies, bees and hummingbirds can increase fruit tree production. Pollinators will pollinate flowers as they move from flower to flower. (false picture)

© Courtesy of the San Diego Union Tribune Adding plants that help attract pollinators such as butterflies, bees and hummingbirds can increase fruit tree production. Pollinators will pollinate flowers as they move from flower to flower. (false picture)

After a colder February, we are looking forward to a warmer March. This month sees the first blooms of spring, tiny new leaves on bare winter branches, and the youngest shoots of newly planted summer vegetables.

Annual plants and flower beds.

What seeds can you start with now?

Summer greens like tomatoes, basil, summer squash, jalapeños, eggplant and more. Start these seeds indoors in containers.
Sow seeds of annual herbs and flowers, such as borage, basil, marigold, sunflower, marigold, zinnia and cosmos. Start these seeds indoors in containers.
Sow cilantro, parsley, beets, carrots, radishes and radish seeds directly into the soil.

Prepare the garden bed for the next step.

Start cycling on cool season crops like lettuce, kale, spinach and broccoli.
If you are growing a cover crop, cut at the base. Let the roots dissolve into place. Cover the top with soil as mulch. They too would soon collapse.
Fill the bed with fresh compost (not potting soil or potting soil), worm castings, and organic compost. Water well to settle.
Irrigation test and repair.
Install a sturdy trellis, wire trellis (not a tomato trellis), etc. for growing tomatoes, cucumbers, climbing gourds, loofah, melons, squash and other vines.

fruit trees and shrubs

Now that peaches, nectarines, pears, fescues, cherries, pomegranates and other deciduous fruit trees are beginning to bloom and drop, slowly increase the frequency (not the duration) of watering.

Apply an organic fruit tree fertilizer to stone, apple and pear trees. Remove the protective covering under the entire canopy to expose the ground. Spread the fertilizer over the soil to the edge of the canopy. Add worm castings if desired. Water the compost well, then replace the mulch.

Apply Organic Orange and Avocado Flour to citrus fruits, avocados and other subtropical fruit trees. Follow the same steps for apples, stone fruits and pears.

Keep harvesting and enjoy the oranges in season! Water thoroughly every few weeks after the rain stops.

Fig, pomegranate, guava, pineapple, tropical guava, and ash trees don't need fertilizer, but they do need a 3-inch or thicker layer of mulch. The water is deep, but only occasionally when the rain stops.

Medlar fruits ripen at the end of the month. What are you going to do with them? Jam? Sauce? Or just enjoy fresh fruit.

Increase fertility by adding plants to your garden that attract butterflies, native bees, honey bees, butterflies, flies, beetles, hummingbirds, bats and other pollinators. When pollinators transfer pollen from one flower to another, they inadvertently initiate fertilization, which causes the flower to develop into a fruit.

Ornamental perennials, shrubs, vines and trees.

Consider which plants attract important pollinators to your garden.

Tubular flowering plants such as sage ( Salvia), grevillea , and native currants ( Ribes) attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

Plants with clusters of small flowers, such as yarrow ( Achillea) and St. John's wort. Catherine ( Eriogonum giganteum) attracts bees and butterflies.

Shallow or open flowering plants, such as zinnias, tulips and daisies, attract bees.

Flowers that open like magnolias and California poppies attract beetles.

The large fragrant white flowers of agave attract bats.

Red, orange and yellow flowers attract birds.

Red, purple and other brightly colored flowers attract butterflies.

Purple and blue flowers attract bees and other insects.

Bright white, yellow and blue flowers such as California lilacs attract native bees.

South African lights on display this month. Tulips, starfish ( Ferraria), tulips ( Watsonia) and other species thrive in the sun. Lily of the valley ( Veltheimia bracteata) grows best in shade.

Wilted perennials that bloom in spring and summer, such as daylilies and sage, when their flowers have faded. Deadhead often stimulates the next stage of flowering .

Prune and wilt California tulips for another round of blooms this spring.

Continue planting native California plants such as lemonade berry ( Rhus intelifolia) , sunflower ( Ecelia californica), California buckwheat ( Eriogonum fasciculatum var fasciculatum), Tecate cypress ( Hesperocyparis forbesii ), and bladderwrack ( Peritoma arborea) . ).

Cut off the parts of the plant that are affected by winter frost. New stems and leaves will grow.

Before heading out to see wildflowers, check which flowers are blooming in the area you will be visiting. You can see real porcupines, lotuses, real deer, real shallots, fiddle necks, real snapdragons and many more.

Go to the local raid? Look for true Mariposa lilies such as the pretty Calochortus weedii with pink and yellow flowers and the white-flowered Calochortus dunnii. Enjoy this lamp in the bedroom. They are very hardy garden plants.

Never collect wildflowers from the wild, never collect cuttings, and never collect seed pods. These flowers produce seeds that provide a new generation of plants for next year and years to come. When you remove flowers and/or seeds, you threaten the future of this generation of wildflowers. This is also illegal.

Married cactus, aeonium, cordyline, forkia , bromeliads, and other rosette-shaped plants produce new leaves in the center while old leaves below wilt and wither.

Wash the center of the bromeliad plant of soil. Turn the flower pot over to empty it, then fill it with clean water. Spray the net in the water that collects in the center of the leaf nozzle.

Start watering the plumeria when the leaves appear at the end of the month.

Start by fertilizing your roses with a slow-release fertilizer.

irrigation

As for houseplants, don't overwater now. The temperature is still cool, the sun is still low in the sky, and the days are still short enough to water all the houseplants from time to time.

When watering, always water the same number of minutes and less frequently in colder months than in warmer months.

Be ready for spring watering. Convert outdated overhead sprinklers and drip irrigation systems to inline drips. Remember to replace all zones at the same time, as different types of irrigation work under different pressures.

Walk through each irrigation area and draw the line for leaks, drips, broken lines, etc. It's easier to manage now, as the plants are just beginning their spring growth.

further

Refresh your garden mulch. Aim for a 3-4 inch layer throughout the garden, except for a 5-10 square foot patch of bare soil for ground-dwelling native bees. They are excellent pollinators and rarely sting humans.

Weeds, weeds, weeds, weeds. Pull weeds by the roots or cut off the tops of the growths on the intestines. Do it as soon as you see the leaves. Don't let weeds grow. These flowers contain the seeds for next year's weed crop.

Sterman is a water park designer and writer and host of Growing Passion on KPBS Television. Learn more at Growpassion.com and waterwisegardener.com .

This story originally appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune.