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Mercer County Horticultural Activities and Expectations
Click a month button above to view a list of possible problems you might find in your home, landscape or garden during that month and also see a list of suggested “To Do” items:
Things to Do This Month:
- gradually remove winter mulches
- clean up the garden
- have soil tests run
- improve soil with organic matter and pre-plant incorporation of fertilizer, lime
- Turf
- March 1: date that lawn fertilizer application can begin in New Jersey
- apply pre-emergence crabgrass control (long residual only, late in month)
- frost seeding lawn (early)
- apply grub control such as Dylox (late) if needed
- apply lime if needed
- reset perennials that have frost-heaved
- start vegetables and flowers from seed
- sow seeds outdoors of hardy annuals, such as poppies and cornflower
- plant sweet peas and garden peas on St. Patrick’s Day, if soil workable
- plant cold-tolerant vegetables such as onions and peas (mid to late month)
- look for and remove cedar apple rust galls on Eastern red cedar
- plant or transplant trees and shrubs when soil workable
- fertilize trees and shrubs (late)
- prune peach trees (late)
- prune trees, shrubs that do not flower in spring (unless renovation pruning)
- band trees for spring cankerworm
- apply dormant oils and other dormant sprays (late)
- apply agricultural gypsum to road salt-affected soil
- trap woodchucks (groundhogs)
Things to Watch for This Month:
- emergence from home of over-wintering insects – boxelder bugs, Asian lady beetle, etc.
- termite reproductives swarm (first warm weather)
- carpenter ants
- winged yellow ants swarm
- silverfish
- house plant problems
- wildlife damage from winter
- winter injury to ornamentals-remedy if possible
- cornelian cherry dogwood, early daffodils and tulips in bloom (late)
- winter aconite, snowdrop bloom (early)
- crocus, chionodoxa, squill, puschkinia, reticulata iris bloom
- swamp red maple in bloom
- When severe pruning is necessary on overgrown or winter damaged broadleaved evergreens or yews, cut the plants back at the end of March.
- Overwintering insects (brown marmorated stink bug, boxelder bug, Asian lady beetle, Western conifer seed bug) that emerge and crawl or fly around indoors.