The month of May has arrived and the vegetable gardeners are itching to get their entire garden planted.
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I am sure that almost everyone who reads this column knows someone who has Lyme disease or you may be unfortunate enough to have or had the disease.
I was out walking the dog the other morning and I was surprised at how much snow had melted away in just 4 days.
This week’s column will cover some odds and ends of things you need to know about gardening.
Winter just doesn’t want to let go and allow spring to come to our area. I guess spring will come eventually to our area.
When the forecast for snow on one TV station is for 1 to 3 inches of snow, 4 to 8 inches on another TV station and 6 to 10 inches on another TV station, you probably have to guess that it will be a dozy of a snowstorm.
Early March is a time when Mother Nature begins to awaken from winter. Maple trees are being tapped and the sugar harvest has begun up north. Slowly but surely, winter will lose its grip on us. We will probably have a setback or two, but those sunny days are melting the snow that, at first, we all thought would last until May!
The warming days in March will allow you to do some outdoor yard work. One of the most important things you can do is to apply dormant oil to some of your plants.
In the fall, many insects will lay eggs on plants. These eggs hatch out in the spring and the insects attack your plants. In some cases, the insects will crawl into hiding places on the bark of your plants. As the weather warms, these insects crawl out and begin to attack your plants. Certain plants are prone to insects over wintering under the bark. These plants would include all of your fruit trees, including your ornamental fruit trees, grape vines and many of your other fruiting vines. Many of your deciduous shrubs will also offer a home for over wintering insects and their eggs. Rose bushes are another plant that will be susceptible to over-wintering insects.
The trick to controlling these insects and their eggs is to use dormant oil on your plants before the insects have a chance to appear. Dormant oil, also called horticultural oil, is applied in late winter when the temperatures are above 40 degrees. The oil is mixed with water and sprayed onto the twigs and branches of your plants. The oil flows down into all those hiding places and coats the insects and their eggs with a thin film of oil. The oil will suffocate the eggs and the insects. As I said, the spray is applied when temperatures are above 40 degrees. This allows the oil to flow properly and to get down into those hiding places. If the temperatures are too cold, the oil does not flow effectively and you will not get the control needed to kill the insects and their eggs.
The other thing you need to know is that this spraying must be dome before the buds begin to swell on the plants. Once tender growth appears on the plants, the oil may damage that new growth. How long you have to do this spraying pretty much depends on what the weather does during this late part of winter.
As winter slowly drifts away, you have a chance to decrease the number of insects that can damage your plants in the spring. When you get a warm day this month, be sure to apply dormant oil to your deciduous trees and shrubs.
Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.
Well, another weekend and another snowstorm. This scenario is getting old really, really fast.
Spring fever appears to have hit many people in the last week.