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FROM THE GROUND UP
by Pat Chenier, O.D.H.SPRING MAINTENANCE
This week we are going to talk about spring maintenance in your yard. The most important piece of advice is to resist temptation to start too early. If your lawn has not thawed and drained, you can do more damage than good by walking on it. A wet soil is subject to compaction. The only time I advise early raking is for snow mold. This should be broken up by gentle raking as it appears.When you lawn is dry, the first order of business is picking up all that winter litter. Then rake up all dead grass, leaves etc. If you mowed your lawn on a regular basis last year, that is all you need. If you allowed the grass to grow too long and left heavy clippings on the lawn, then I would recommend using the rotorake bar on your lawn mower to remove excess thatch.
If you lawn is subject to heavy traffic, dumping of snow piles etc. aerating should be done using a machine that removes cores of soil. These cores should then be raked to break them up. Do not use a machine that only punches holes into your lawn. These machines cause more compaction as they compress the soil at the sides of the holes. Top dressing your lawn with a mixture of good topsoil and peat moss helps your lawn stay healthy. Aerating and topdressing should be done every few years.
Do not be in a rush to fertilize your lawn. The best routine for fertilizing is to feed your lawn in 4 feedings from May to August using 16-20-0 or 16-20-0-14. Apply at the rate of 2.5 Kg per 100 M2 (5 lbs. Per 1,000 square feet). The grass must be dry prior to fertilizing. After spreading fertilizer, using a spreader to obtain uniform coverage, water in well. If your lawn has bare areas, rake them vigorously, top dress and reseed. I always use local seed. I find that it produces an excellent lawn that is well suited to this climate.
When your flower beds are dry and thawed, it's time to cleanup all those dead plants left from last year. Remove the dead foliage of perennials. Be on the lookout for weeds and get rid of them before they get any larger. It will do a lot less damage to your plants if you can remove them when they are still small. If you covered plants with mulch for the winter, do not be in a rush to remove it. Early May is soon enough and even then remove it slowly and be prepared to recover tender plants if the weather decides to turn bad.
Look over those trees and shrubs carefully. See what needs pruning. There are many excellent books on the proper technique of pruning. Some people panic when they look at a diagram of pruning techniques. There is no need to. Just remember these simple steps. Remove all dead and damaged branches. When pruning do not leave stubs as they will rot back and damage the tree. Remove branches which are rubbing or crossing over each other. Now thin out any area where it is too thick trying to maintain a balanced look. Do not cut trees too severely. Procedures such as pollarding result in excessive new growth which is weak and open to attack by insects and disease. When pruning flowering shrubs, remember to prune shrubs that flower on new wood in the spring, as soon as weather permits. Those that flower on old wood should not be pruned until after they flower.
FALL WORK
Once you have harvested your garden, you should clean up all residue and do a fall tilling. This will reduce the amount of weeds left to winter over as well as ensure that the soil will be in a good condition to absorb water come the spring thaw.September is a good time to transplant many trees, shrubs and perennials. It gives them plenty of time to set new roots before freeze-up. Whenever possible move plant material with a good root ball to minimize any transplanting shock. Remember to water well and DO NOT FERTILIZE with any fast acting fertilizer when you plant in the fall. You want the plants to grow new roots but not top growth which would not have time to harden off for winter.
When the trees and shrubs start to lose their leaves in the fall, it is safe to fall prune them. Ensure that all your pruning cuts are made in such a manner that you do not leave stubs that will rot back.
Remember if the fall is dry to water your evergreens thoroughly just before freeze-up to provide adequate moisture for winter. Evergreens lose moisture through their needles all winter and the result is brown needles in the spring. If your evergreens are in an area where they receive a lot snow such as under the eaves, protect them with burlap, a upturned bushel basket, or other protection to keep them from being crushed. You can build simple slatted frames that can be used each year for this purpose.
If you are growing tender perennials you will have to mulch them for winter with peat moss or straw to protect them from the freeze-thaw cycles of winter. Remember it is not the cold that damages them but the removal of snow cover by winds, chinooks and thaws so do not cover them till after freezeup. By this time the mice will have found a place to live for the winter so they will not take up residence in your flower bed and eat up the plants.
After the ground freezes, tender roses should be hilled up with soil taken from elsewhere not pulled up from around the plants.
Before freeze-up ensure that all your gardening equipment if clean and repaired before storing for winter. Drain all your hoses and store inside a shed to protect them.
It is getting that time of the year when you can put up your feet for a while and enjoy the Indian summer that we are going to get (I hope). Then in December when the seed catalogues come out bring out that list you made over the summer and fall and start picking out what varieties you are going to plant next spring. Get that order in early and take advantage of any savings offered for early birds. If your order is too small, go together with a friend or neighbour on an order to save on shipping and handling costs.
INCREASING HARDINESS
To ensure the successful wintering of permanent plants such as perennials, fruit trees, turf grasses etc. the secret is to have them face winter in a hardened condtition. They must be as close to dormancy as possible and fully matured. To assist them to reach this condition, generally cease the use of fertilizer by mid-summer. For turf, use low nitrogen fertilizers in the fall. Any fertilization of trees should be with low nitrogen fertilizers and only after leaf drop to prevent the growth of soft succulent tissue which would not have time to harden off. In wet areas, cease cultivation by the end of July to aid the hardening process. Water only sparingly from August to October but ensure the plants receive sufficent water before freeze-up.In the orchard, planting a cover crop such as fall rye or oats in late July serves three purposes. The cover crop absorbs nutrients and moisture, slowing down the growth rate and aiding trees to harden off. The cover crop also traps snow and holds it so that it will provide mosture when spring thaws occur. Grass has also been used successfully for this purpose but it must be mowed short to discourage rodents which will attack the trees during winter doing extensive damage and often killing them. Overbearing of fruit trees leaves them weakened and susceptible to winter damage. Always thin fruit crops when young. This ensures an even distribution of fruit over the tree to reduce the weakening of branches from overweight. Delay thinning until the natural fruit fall of apples in early June. Blossom thinning chemicals are not advised on the prairies as late spring frosts can occur, and combined with the chemical would result in the loss of too many blossoms.
With the lawn, the secret to winter hardiness is having the turf as close to dormancy as possible when winter strikes. Again fertilization plays an important part, along with the amount of soil moisture, mowing height, amount of thatch, presence of snow cover, and the culitivar selected. Do not use cultivars that remain green and succulent for they will be too susceptible to damage. Merion Bluegrass is the worst cultivar for this problem. Even though a lush lawn is considered a status symbol, it is a liability in the north. When irrigating turf, always water deeply and ensure that the turf is well watered in the fall. Improve surface drainage to eliminate pockets of standing water whcih will damge the lawn. Proper care of the lawn such as aerating and dethatching will increase the hardiness of the lawn. The most important factor of all is KEEP TRAFFIC OFF THE TURF in winter. This includes all traffic- foot, snowmobiles etc.as weight compacts the snow and reduces the insulation value of the snow and the freeze-thaw cycles of winter will cause the grass roots to heave out of the soil and winter kill. Cut higher in the fall to provide insulation for the roots but do not leave grass excessively high as this will smother the grass.
Roses were covered in another column, so will not repeat them here.
What you should do to protect your plants over winter is covered in another column. August is coming and that is the best time to transplant evergreens and perennial poppies so they are well established by winter. Don't forget to get your bulb order in as soon as the catalogue comes to ensure early delivery. the garden.
PLANT NUTRITION
Now we are going to discuss feeding your plants. Many people have asked what the numbers on the bag of fertilizer stand for. The first number is the percentage of nitrogen in that formulation. The second is the phosphorus and the third is potassium. The fourth number that is sometimes present is the percentage of sulphur. Which formula you should buy is dependent upon the use to which you are going to put it. You would not buy a fertilizer where nitrogen is the highest number if you are using it in the vegetable garden. You would have lots of foliage but very little root or fruit production as nitrogen is the nutrient that produces vegetative growth. It makes the foliage darker green. It helps the root system take up the other nutrients but lowers the calcium content in the plant . Calcium is important in tomatoes to prevent blossom end rot. The phosporus content of the fertilizer stimulates root growth, speeds up maturity, helps in the development of flower and seeds, and is essential to cell division. Seedlings are usually given an application of high phosporus fertilizer to ensure an adequate root system that will tolerate transplanting better. The potassium helps in maturing the plant, in the development of the root system and has other uses as well. The soil in the Prairies usually has adequate potassium and so the use of formulas like 16-20-0 is adequate for most applications on turf. Sulphur is important as it is part of some amino acids, it is needed for nodule formation on legumes and is required in the formation of vitamins. There are other elements that have a part to play in the growth and development of plant material. Most of these are required in such small amounts that there is normally sufficient amounts in the soil. Some are included in fertilizer formulations. When gardening with soiless mixtures or hydroponics, you will have to provide these missing micro-nutrients as well as the main nutrients.Once you have decided on whether you need higher nitrogen or some other nutrient, there are many formulas to choose from. For instance, to increase the nitrogen content of the soil, you could choose 33-0-0 ( Ammonium Nitrate) or 15-0-0 (Calcium Nitrate) among others . They both will provide the nitrogen required but 33-0-0 will give you more nitrogen per kg compared to the other source. The cost of the pure nutrient can varying considerably. Shipping costs are one major factor in the cost so you don't want to pay for a lot of filler if you don't have to.
Of course there are still other decisions to make. Whether you use a granular fertilizer or a liquid one depends upon cost, ease of application, the equipment you have access to etc. You should not try to spread granular fertilizer by hand. You need a spreader that will ensure a uniform distribution of the material to avoid that streaky or spotty design that is all too common on home lawns. You can rent a spreader quite cheaply. Liquid fertilizers are easily spread with a hose end sprayer. Ensure that the sprayer has a back-flow device to prevent the material from going into the water source if the pressure drops. If not, buy a back-flow device to install on your outside tap.
For trees and shrubs, the easiest way to feed them is with a root feeder that places the fertilizer in the root zone so that it doesn't get wasted. The root feeder can also be used to provide water for the trees and shrubs without watering the soil surface. This ensures that all the water goes where it is required and not evaporated.
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This page by Pat
updated August 18, 2000
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