* Celebrate Arbor Day this Friday! Plant a tree. If there’s no room in the yard, donate a tree to your community. There’s always a need for new trees in every town.
* Harvest rhubarb by pulling off the leaf stalks or petioles, starting with the outermost stalks. Discard the leaf blade, since they contain toxic levels of oxalic acid. Don’t harvest any stalks from newly planted rhubarb. Next year, harvest over a two-week period; the year after, limit harvest to a 4-week period; thereafter, harvest for 6 to 8 weeks. Excess rhubarb can be easily frozen by cutting washed and dried leaf stalks into one-inch pieces, freezing these on a cookie sheet, and then tossing the pieces into freezer bags.
* Transplant leek and onion seedlings. Leeks should be planted in a 6-8 inch deep trench with a spacing of 6 inches between each plant. As leeks grow, mound soil from the trench around the stems. This will result in succulent, white stems. Onions may be planted in wide beds. I plant the seedlings in 3 or more parallel rows which are 6 inches apart. The seedlings in each row are also 6 inches apart.
* Build a raised bed for planting carrots if soils are heavy (high clay content) or gravelly. Carrots like a deep, rich, stone-free soil that drains well. A simple bed can be built by nailing together some boards to make a box that is about 18 to 24 inches wide, 6 to 8 inches high, and 6 to 8 feet long. Fill the bed with garden soil enriched with compost.Â
* With vine crops such as squash, cucumbers, and melons, start them indoors. For ease of transplanting, sow seeds in individual, biodegradable pots.
* Examine trees, especially on crabapples and ornamental cherries, for newly hatched tent caterpillars. Applications of the naturally occurring bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), are very effective on the young nuisances.Â
* Plant potatoes if space allows. If it doesn’t, plant a few seed potatoes in large pots to grow on the patio. This won’t result in a bumper crop but will provide at least a few meals of “new” potatoes. “New” potatoes are harvested before the plants mature. They have very thin skins and are great for steaming. I prefer red-skinned varieties for new potatoes, but fingerling and yellow varieties are also good choices.
* Don’t put weeding on the back burner while focusing on planting tasks. Many weeds are already making headway in the vegetable garden and flower borders. The best way to weed is to get down on all fours. However, this can be tough on aging extremities. So, wear knee pads – they really do help.
* Re-pot houseplants that have become pot bound. The conventional wisdom is to place a one inch deep layer of stone or broken crockery in the bottom of the pot to ensure good drainage. Balderdash! Drainage is more a function of the length of the soil column in the pot, and placing a layer of stone in the bottom of the pot reduces the depth of the soil. So, just put one stone or piece of crockery over the drainage hole.
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One of spring’s greatest joys is witnessing the progressive blooming of ornamental trees and shrubs across the landscape. Right now, magnolias, ornamental cherries, and forsythias are most prominent. The magnolias are particularly eye-catching. Star magnolia (Magnolia stellata) and its many hybrids are the first of these to bloom, followed by saucer magnolia (Magnolia x soulangiana). I must admit that the pleasure I get from seeing magnolias in bloom is always tempered by the fear of frost. Magnolia blossoms are much more sensitive to frost than other early blooming woody plants. The next hard freeze can turn these glorious flowers into limp, browned remnants. Still, they make a great addition to the home landscape. The risk is minimal in comparison to the enjoyment they provide.
