As I wrote last week about March Madness, I did have the chance to watch some high school tournament action over the weekend. While on my travels, I did notice some signs of spring beginning to appear. I did notice that some tree buds are starting to swell, wild garlic is growing, and a few folks told me that some flowers were starting to bloom. If we can make it through the next few days, the weather looks like it is going to start to improve. I don’t know about you but I am ready for spring. I am even looking forward to mowing the lawn!
Once we do get a nice day and you want to start doing outdoor activities, it will be a great time to check plants around the landscape for signs of potential insect problems. Check spruces and other trees for bags an inch or two long, remove and destroy, as there could be 300-800 bagworm eggs inside, which can damage the tree. Also, check trees such as wild cherry for the Eastern Tent Caterpillar. Look at smaller branches for bronze colored, foamy looking egg masses that may surround the branch. They will hatch as the leaves emerge, make the nests where branches connect and defoliate the tree. If we can remove the masses now, we will greatly reduce any problems next month.
It is also a good time to prune and fertilize raspberries. June bearing red raspberries should have all dead, damaged and weak canes removed and cutting back the rest to three to four feet. Black and purple raspberries should have their lateral branches cut back to eight to ten inches, and all can have a balanced fertilizer (i.e. two to three pounds of 10-10-10 per 100 feet of row) applied now.
Finally, if it is still too cold and wet to go out, we can still seed tomatoes and eggplant indoors. These warm-season vegetables require warm temperatures for seed germination and growth, and are quite frost sensitive. They should not be set out until the danger of frost is past.
Before too long, once you can get into the garden, it will be time to plant onion sets, then in a few weeks, it will be time to plant peas, radishes, spinach and leeks. Get ready, spring is just around the corner! I’ll end this week with a quote from Kin Hubbard: “The safe way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket.” Have a great week.