Every month we’ll bring you fresh gardening ideas and tips, professional advice, and techniques both new and traditional for you to apply to your own home garden and make it the best it can be.

Planting

• Plant ornamental trees and shrubs while the weather is still cool.
• Divide and replant fall flowering plants such as asters and mums.
• Complete transplanting of established woody plants before bud break.
• Plant cool season flowers such as alyssum, daisies, dianthus, and geraniums (mid to late March).
• Plant spinach, radishes, lettuce, through mid April. Also plant snap beans, cucumbers, sweet corn, lima beans, mustard, tomatoes, and squash late March when soil temperatures are warm enough for each variety.
• Begin to plant warm season flowers as temperatures increase towards the end of the month and as they become available in nurseries.

Pruning

• Prune back overgrown ground cover such as English ivy and Asian jasmine to maintain the height you prefer. Do so before new growth begins.
• Cut back ornamental grasses before new growth appears.
• Remove winter-damage from shrubs and other ornamentals.
• Do not prune spring flowering shrubs and vines, until after blooming such as forsythia, quince, azaleas, spirea, etc.
• Allow foliage on spring bulbs such as daffodils to die back and dry before removing, to create food for next year’s plants.

Plant Care

• Based on a soil test fertilize established shade trees, ornamental trees, and shrubs as spring growth begins.
• Based on a soil test fertilize pecan and fruit trees before bud break.
• Check new growth on ornamental plants weekly for aphids and scale insects and treat if necessary.
• Mow fescue/ryegrass lawns, now growing vigorously, at five day intervals, or as needed.
• Fertilize fescue lawns in early March as per soil test results.
• Continue to feed pansies and other cool season annuals to extend their bloom season.
• Continue to protect tender plants from late freezes.

Source: Dallas County Master Gardeners