Tuesday, March 8, 2016

SPRING UPDATES!! 2016

Welcome Spring 2016!

We are in the process of filling up the greenhouses with bedding plants and hanging baskets. It won't be long and tomatoes will be transplanted, followed by petunias, sweet potato vine and zinnias, and much more. It does seem to be an early spring and folks are itching to do some yard work.
Typical gardening chores at this time of year consist mainly of fertilizing the lawn, spring cleaning out the flower beds of fall debris, and pruning fruit trees and applying dormant spray.
On any warmish spring day, cleanup is easy to execute. As for lawn fertilizing, it's a good idea to wait another week or two before applying a weed and feed product.
Before it gets much warmer, pruning and dormant spray application should be taken care of before leaf buds develop further. Dormant spray helps kill off any bugs that are hiding dormant on fruit trees, etc that can cause damage to developing fruit. Once the bugs emerge from dormancy, it's too late for this important step. Now is a perfect time to accomplish those tasks.
Of course be on the lookout for early spring bulbs peeking out of the soil including crocus, snow drops and maybe a few daffodils!

Last weekend we participated in the first annual Bear River Valley Showcase home and garden show held at the Box Elder County fairgrounds. What a great time we had meeting new faces, visiting with regular customers and answering all kinds of questions about yards and gardens. We even gave away a lot of potted herbs to show guests to enjoy some fresh green in their kitchen and home cooked meals. We are so thankful to all the show guests and of course our many wonderful customers who voted our booth as People's Choice at the show case! What a pleasant surprise!




Our shipments of trees and shrubs will start arriving mid to late April. Even though it is warm and it seems natural to start planting, be patient. We still have frost in our climate zone well into May. Some of our product is shipped in from the warm west coast and sometimes arrive fully leafed out or in bloom. Chances are still high for frost damage in our higher elevation and we try our best to prevent this and have good strong and healthy plants for success in your yard.

Pansies, dianthus, snapdragons, and flowering cabbage are tough enough to plant outside now. They handle the frost and spring snows like warriors!

Our entire spring class schedule is posted on our Facebook page and our store website. Bill Varga will teach this week's class on pruning and all the basic fundamentals for trees and shrubs. Class starts at 10:00 am March 12th. No need to sign up, just come and enjoy. Another pruning class will follow on March 19th at 10:00 am taught by our local extension agent Mike Pace. Mike will have an emphasis on fruits and berries. Both classes will last about an hour with a question and answer period following. Bring your questions to ask the experts! Both of our pruning classes are very popular and draw a nice crowd.