The gardener’s check list of unfinished and urgent tasks is longest in spring. Planting must be finished as soon as weather and time permit. If you haven’t already placed your orders to nurseries and for seed, do it at once. Delays now in filling orders are unavoidable; if you don’t act quickly, the season may be well advanced before the plant materials reach you.
Wet clay soil is a serious handicap at this time and may hold up planting. Soil that was thrown up in ridges and given lime last fall, will be much easier to handle now than totally unprepared ground.
Sow seeds. according to a well planned schedule, the cool weather kinds now, the others Later. You will be repaid by an early and continuing supply of flowers and vegetables. Leafy vegetables, peas, onions and others recommended for early planting will make better root growth in cool soil, before warmer weather can force top growth.
Seed Germination
A high percentage of seed germination or sprouting is possible only with good seed; don’t waste time with inferior kinds. Then make conditions for germination as nearly perfect as you can. Avoid covering seeds with more than 1/8 to 1/4 inch of soil. Sufficient moisture beneath the seeds is necessary, too. The soil should not be of the quality which cakes on top and seals the surface against moisture which germinating seeds need. A little compost or peatmoss mixed with the soil and a sprinkling of superphosphate will greatly aid germination. Encourage rapid development of seedlings by thinning them out as soon as they can be handled.
Early growth of seedlings may be seriously hindered by a lack of food materials in the top inch or so of soil where the young roots are. The practical answer is an application of one pound of complete fertilizer raked into the surface of every 100 square feet of soil, or into the drills at seeding time. Or, you can apply one of the very soluble fertilizers as a water solution. One or two applications will suffice. In a short time the roots will have grown far enough into the ground to reach the food materials worked in earlier. Both annual vegetables and flowers make the most use of soil nutrients in the early stages of development.
Start with straight rows, if you are vegetable gardening, and keep them straight. Where you have several crops which require the same spacing between rows, you can mark the rows easily. Stretch a line between two stakes to mark the first row.
Moving Trees
There should be little loss in moving the general run of trees and shrubs, either evergreen or deciduous, if the usual precautions are taken. Keep the roots covered, provide a hole large enough for the roots to be spread out and make certain that there is good contact between the roots and soil.
It is the difficult-to-move plants which cause problems. There are quite a number of these, many of which are avoided by gardeners because of the gamble in transplanting. You need not be deprived of the desirable plants in this group, however. Observe the following instructions and you will find that many can be moved successfully.
The time to transplant trees and shrubs is when new growth is just beginning. Save all possible roots and keep them covered and moist. Work the planting soil into a fine state and firm the soil moderately about Ilse plant roots. The so-called hormone treatment for roots is of little value here. But the generous use of moist peatmoss or compost in the soil, plus some superphosphate, would help. The plant needs moisture hut avoid flooding the roots with water; root action is impeded in cold, sodden soil. Avoid tramping wet soil around the roots as this will cause the soil to cake and exclude air. The plant should be set in the hole at the same depth at which it was planted before.
Don’t prune these plants severely. We are accustomed to cutting shrubs back hard after transplanting them and may not make allowances for the more sensitive plants, Transplanting is a shock in itself; cutting hack at the same time is a double shock. Pruning can wait until later when the plant has recovered.
Magnolia stellate, firethorn (pyracantha), cotoneaster, aralia, bluebeard (caryopteris) and alpine flowering quince are among the sensitive shrubs which can be successfully moved with this extra care. Worth-while trees in the group are: sour gum (nyssa), birch, beech, Japanese maple, weeping willow and hawthorne, plus the evergreen American holly, Scotch pine and some junipers.
Plant Fruit Trees
Fruit trees and bushes of all kinds can be planted now. Buy only top-size plants which have heavy root systems; cheap plants are mostly culls and will disappoint you. All plants need full sun to set fruit. Allow plenty of room for future development. Don’t set fruit trees near the house; necessary spraying operations will ruin the paint. Select fruit varieties with care for many are successful only in limited areas. Your state experiment station can suggest the best for your locality.
Removing protective winter covering is a local problem, too. Do it gradually in places where frost may still be expected. Perennials sometimes begin growing beneath the covering and sudden exposure to the elements would injure new growth. Roses and other plants of a shrubby nature can be uncovered, though.
You can begin to prune roses at any time. Be moderate, however, in pruning. Constant overall reduction of heavy top growth to mere stubs in spring does not benefit the plants. Some varieties. can “take it,” others cannot. It’s a matter of knowing your varieties. Watch them and see how they respond.
Because their growth and flowering habit are little understood, vines are usually left to build up an unpruned tangle of stems with flowers confined to the top or outer stems. Prune vines according to when they flower.
Clematis montana and its varieties bloom in spring. Pruning should be done after flowering, or about June. Clematis paniculata blooms in September and is pruned in early spring, before flowering. The former blooms on growth produced the previous year, the latter on growth produced the same year it is pruned. Both are vigorous vines and once the plants are established, pruning can be severe. These clematis will produce stems to 10 to 14 feet long in one season. If the plants are to cover a tall fence or trellis, it may be more practical to leave a few long canes as superstructure for the new foliage and flowers. Cut back the rest of the growth to 3 feet.
Clematis jackmani varieties are all pruned in early spring, but not until they have been planted two years. Then they can be cut back to within 3 feet of the ‘ground if they are not wanted on a high trellis.
Another summer bloomer, the trumpet vine, is also pruned in spring and in a similar manner.
