March is a great month for trimming and tidying. Get it done now because a month from now you’ll be busy cleaning dirt from under your fingernails.

March is one of the most important months of the year for fertilizing because it is the start of the growing season. Feed (16-16-16) fruit and ornamental trees, groundcovers, shrubs, perennials and annuals that have been in the ground at least six weeks. Feed your container plants also

Shrubs and Trees

o Remove the winter mulch from existing roses and prune as needed. Consult a good rose book for the best methods to trim your type of rose since timing and methods vary

o Prune your trees especially fruit trees (except walnut, maple and birch trees). Do not prune flowering shrubs.

o Fertilize deciduous and evergreen trees. Protect deciduous trees from mites, scale and aphids by treating with horticultural oil.

o Start watering trees and shrubs that you planted in the fall. Begin when you see new leaves appear. A slow, steady watering is best. Try using a hose on a slow trickle or a soaker hose to water deeply and well

o Plant new fruit trees, rose bushes, berries, spring flowering shrubs and other deciduous plants. Not the best time to transplant unless tree or shrub is still in dormant stage.

Flower and Bulb Beds

o Test the pH levels in planting beds. Adjusting the pH level of soil is the single most important garden task you can perform to get healthy plants.

o Cut back perennials that you left standing for winter

o This is a great time to buy and plant perennials as the soil is still cool. Also if you are ordering in bare root plants from mail order, this should be done early in month. When things arrive, bare-root woody plants will take priority in planting, so think ahead.

o Bulbs such as lilies and Canna should be planted now for summer and fall color.

o Annuals that enjoy the cooler weather March offers may be planted. These include pansies, snapdragons and calendulas.

o Tulip and daffodil bulbs require a light application of fertilizer (a high- nitrogen, quick-release fertilizer)

o Cut smooth hydrangeas all the way to the ground. Thin last year’s growth on peegee hydrangeas, and remove dead wood at the base of oak-leaf hydrangeas

o Get a step ahead by edging and weeding your beds. Dig them, roots and all, before they set seed which will lessen their numbers later

o Now is when you should cut back your ornamental grasses. Hold or tie the old growth with twine and cut the grass 4-6 inches from the ground. New growth will appear in a few weeks.

Other Stuff

o Check garden tools. Fix, sharpen or replace them as necessary.

o Clean out your birdhouses get them ready for spring nesting

o Take the mower in for a tune-up.

o Broken or weak arbors, fences and trellis should be repaired this month

o Cleaning and repairing drip irrigation lines

o Remove leaves from the bottom of ponds or other water features

o Start over seeding bare spots in the lawn. Seed once a week and water lightly twice a day until spots fill in. But don’t fertilize until Memorial Day. Apply pre-emergent crabgrass control to your lawn

“Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush.” – Doug Larson

It’s quite easy to create a butterfly garden. You may even find that you already grow some flowers that attract butterflies. With just a little effort you can create a beautiful haven for these lovely winged creatures, and the butterflies will appreciate your efforts.

When deciding where to locate your butterfly garden, choose a spot that is not isolated from other plants. Butterflies will be more likely to find your garden if there are other flowers nearby to lead them to your butterfly garden. But if your butterfly garden is the only patch of flowers in a vast sea of grass, butterflies won’t have much reason to be in the area. If you have a border of flowering shrubs and other butterfly-enticing plants are scattered around your yard, the butterflies are much more likely to spend time in your garden.

The butterfly garden should include a variety of plants that attract butterflies, and those plants should be in a variety of colors and heights. Consider planting azaleas, rhododendrons and lilacs for height. Fragrant ‘James McFarland’ lilacs seem to be especially attractive to butterflies. Weigela, with its flowers like dainty trumpets, is another good shrub for attracting butterflies.

No butterfly garden should be without Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa). Not only will the bright orange blossoms attract many butterflies, but the plant will also provide food for caterpillars. Without the caterpillars there would be no butterflies. Dill and parsley also provide food for butterfly caterpillars. If you’re lucky, you may even have Monarch butterflies laying their eggs on the milkweed and you can watch the entire life cycle, from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly.

Many other commonly grown flowers will attract butterflies, including hollyhocks, purple coneflowers (Echinacea), Black-eyed Susans (rudbeckia), cosmos, huechera, zinnias, beebalm and cleome. Buddleia, also known as butterfly bush, is a must in any butterfly garden. If you have room for this large plant, Mexican sunflower (tithonia) will attract many butterflies and hummingbirds with its sunny orange blooms.

Plan your butterfly garden so there are blooms all season long. The rhododendrons, azaleas and lilacs will provide a spring snack for butterflies, followed by summer-blooming plants such as the buddleia and asclepias. In the fall, butterflies will sip nectar from asters and ‘Autumn Joy” sedum.

In addition to providing food for butterflies, your butterfly garden should also provide a resting place along with shelter from the wind and cold. Include flat rocks in your garden where the butterflies can sun themselves. It’s even better if the rocks have shallow depressions where water will puddle and provide a place for butterflies to gather for a drink.

A small log pile will provide shelter from the weather for butterflies. You can also purchase butterfly shelters that look rather like tall, narrow birdhouses with several slots for entrances. These may attract butterflies, but in my experience wasps tend to move in, discouraging any butterflies from entering.

One final thing that every butterfly garden should include is a comfortable bench placed where you can sit and admire the beautiful butterflies. After all, you’ve created this garden not only for the butterflies but also for your own enjoyment.

This article was written by Kathy Anderson. Kathy has been an avid gardener for many years and has grown tomatoes by the acre, along with many other vegetables, flowers and landscape plants.

Starting Out

You wouldn’t just grab some lumber and nails and start building a home you planned on being in for the rest of your life, without a plan would you? So why would you build a garden without a plan. The first and most critical step is to go out and walk around on your property and take the time to choose a place for your new garden. Remember that this garden will be with you as long as you care for it and nurture it. This is why it is so important that you choose a spot where you will not have to remove the plants once they are firmly in their new home and happy there. Take your time on this step and you will be glad you did in the future.

Next you need to plan what you would like to see in your garden. Go to your local nursery and ask for pictures of plants if they have them or make sure to take a digital camera so you can take some pictures of plants they have there that are in bloom and past blooming also. You can lay the pictures out on a table in the pattern you are thinking about for your garden. The reason for this is that you want to be able to envision what plants will look like as the time passes over the summer and you can arrange your new plants so you get the maximum effect from the colors over the course of the summer. It is always nice to see color in all parts of the garden as the summer passes by. You can plan to have plants that have nice color right into the late fall too.

Beginning Construction

If you are going to build this garden on never before disturbed earth you will need either some equipment from your local rental facility or maybe even someone professional to come in and prepare the earth for you. You need to remove the sod and get down to just dirt. Before you do that go to the hardware store and get a can or two of landscape paint. With this can of paint you can draw the outline of your garden right on the grass before you do any digging. This will make it so you don’t remove far more sod than you really need to. You can always make the shape different or larger if your desire.

Now you can remove the sod and break up the earth with a garden fork or a rototiller if it is going to be a larger garden. Have any supplies you need such as soil amendments like manure and fertilizer ready when you are doing this step. It makes it easier as you are tilling the earth up to just add the soil amendments right in and till them into the ground at that point in the building process. You don’t have to have the plants at this time unless you are planning on putting them right into the garden. It is usually best to just break up the earth and amend the soil and let things rest for a day or so. While that is happening you can go shopping for the plants you have chosen. You will most likely change your mind a few times during the building process. Don’t forget to get weed barrier to help keep the weeds down to a minimum. Weed barrier and mulch combine will minimize your work in the future as the garden matures.

Now that you have the shape you want and the soil prepared, you can take the plants and set them container and all right where you think you want them to be. Please follow the recommendations about the proper amount of room for your new plants. Very often they will grow larger if they have the room to do it. It is a common mistake for people to try and get the finished look to their new garden only to find out that in a year or two that the garden is way over crowded. Give them their space and you and the plants will be much happier. If you are happy with the plants where you have set them you can go ahead and plant them. Make the holes the depth they recommend on the planting instructions and usually make them about twice as big around as the container they come in.

Finishing Touches

With the plants in the garden it is time to add the finishing touches. Top off the weed barrier you spread around the garden before you planted your plants with a good quality mulch. Add any decorations you want like stone or any other garden decor. Get out your garden hose and give the new garden a thorough watering. Make sure to give the garden plenty of water over the next couple of weeks or even more if you are in a very dry climate. Keep a close eye on your new plants for yellowing leaves or whithering plants. Use a good edging for your garden and it will make it easier to keep the grass trimmed without getting it in the new garden. Now with your new garden built and finished it is time to grab a shady spot and a nice cool beverage and sit back and admire your work. With a little direction you can see that it is not all that hard to build a garden from start to finish. Go out and find a spot and have some fun building a garden and enjoying the beauty of the flowers and the birds playing in the garden. Take some pictures as you go through the process and put them in your scrapbook. Good luck and have lots of fun playing in the dirt.

August is the time to enjoy tasty homegrown vegetables and fruits, and take pleasure in the beauty of green plants, trees and flowering annuals. It’s also time to plan your fall and winter gardens.

Pick Your Summer Vegetables: Even with a modest garden, summer vegetables are in abundance and ripening continuously in August. You may have run out of recipes for all your zucchini and squash, but pick them regularly even if you don’t plan to use them immediately. This will stimulate new growth so that the plants continue to produce into fall.

Plant Your Fall and Winter Vegetables: Plant seeds or starter plants of fall and winter vegetables such as green onions, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, mustard, radishes and beets. The seeds and young plants will benefit from August’s warm soil. For seeds, the germination process greatly increases in warm soil, than in the cooler soil of fall and winter.

Plant Cool Season Annuals: You can also get a jump on your winter flower garden by planting seeds for cool season annuals. These annuals include calendula, delphiniums, pansies and snapdragon.

Garden Maintenance: To ensure your garden looks its best, set aside time each week to spruce up your garden by removing dead flowers from rose trees and other flowering plants. Keeping up on flower removal will help trees flower longer. Trim and shape fast growing trees and bushes. Pull weeds while they are small and before they have the opportunity to go to seed. If the seeds are allowed to germinate, you will be battling new weeds next year. Plus, weeds steal nutrients from plants and sometimes attract insects that can harm the garden.

Water Smart: Deep watering will help plant roots grow farther into the ground where there is more moisture than near the surface. A quick watering every few days is a waste of water as the water evaporates quickly before it can reach a plant’s roots. Make sure the soil is moist at least three to four inches below the surface.

Bill Camarillo is CEO of Agromin, an Oxnard, California-based manufacturer of premium soil products and the green materials recycler for communities throughout Southern California. Each month, Agromin receives and processes thousands of tons of urban wood and green waste. Agromin then uses a safe, organic and scientific system to formulate its soil products from the processed recycled green materials. http://www.agromin.com

Your garden should be a relaxing, enjoyable place to be in every season. Keeping your outdoor space inviting is easy with these tips for yards and water gardens in the fall.

1. Keep the water in your outdoor fountain or garden pond free of fallen leaves. Not only can leaves and other fallen organic matter decompose in your pond and cause problems with bacteria and algae, they can also clog your pump. Skim leaves off the surface daily and be sure to use an algaecide made for fountain such as No More Algae for Fountains (found at SpecialtyLiving.com).

2. Clean your fountain pump before emptying the water for the winter. This will ensure that any debris inside the pump won’t be left to dry up and clog the inner workings once you’ve emptied the water from your fountain. Remove the cover and pull out anything that may have accumulated inside.

3. Protect your fountain from cracks due to the expansion and contraction of water as it freezes and thaws. Purchase a fountain cover in the appropriate size and cover the fountain from the top to the bottom of the basin (pedestals don’t need to be covered). This will keep precipitation from falling into the basins and causing damage.

4. Prepare your water garden for the upcoming freeze by sinking all hardy perennial aquatics to the deepest area of the pond. This will keep them in the warmest water available and allow them to go dormant for the winter without sustaining damage.

5. If your pond is too shallow to sink your plants over the winter, consider purchasing a de-icer. De-icers heat a small opening in the top of your pond where it would normally freeze over, allowing the release of toxic gases from decomposing organic matter to escape and also oxygenating the water.

6. If you supplement your landscaping or water garden with tropical plants, it’s best to remove them for the winter unless you live in a mild climate. They won’t survive the cold weather, and as they decay they can cause damage to other plants around them. It’s recommended to treat them as annuals and purchase new ones each spring.

7. Don’t cut your perennials down over the winter – leave them standing so they can provide resources for birds. Many plants have attractive foliage and seed pods that offer both food and shelter during the snowy months when both can be difficult for birds to find. Birds need water, also – use a plastic container and replace the water frequently.

8. Mulch around perennials and well-established plants to maintain a uniform soil temperature and add a few extra weeks to the root development of newly planted shrubs and trees.

9. Give your garden a good fall cleanup to prevent disease and insect problems next year. Canker, mildew, fungi and other problem spots in your yard can spread to other plant life if the rotting plant matter is allowed to linger and be spread around by wind and water. Prune dead branches, gather fallen leaves and collect yard waste piles and either burn, bury or compost.

10. Plant spring bulbs in October. Planting tulip, crocus, daffodils and other flower bulbs at this time will give the roots time to get established before warm weather rolls back around. Prepare the soil to ensure that it has good drainage. Soil fertility is also important – work a complete commercial fertilizer into the upper 4 to 6 inches of soil. The depth of the soil above the bulb should be approximately twice the diameter of the bulb.

Stephanie Gottschalk writes the blogs ‘Picnic Fun – Tips and Recipes’ and ‘The Joy of Water Fountains’ for Specialty Living Inc., an Asheville, North Carolina-based company that aims to share their love of people, nature and life through high quality water fountains, picnic baskets and outdoor living products.