Don’t scalp your bermuda or zoysia lawn yet.
We recommend April 1-15, after the last freeze. Read more about scalping and mowing.
Keep the leaves off your fescue grass.
If you have piles of leaves on your fescue, please blow them off! Fescue needs this time to soak up some good sunshine while the leaves are still off the trees. The more sunshine it gets in this cool weather, the better it will look in the heat of the summer.
Don’t get in a hurry in your flowerbeds
Sometimes, the home and garden stores sell things before it’s time to plant them. Caladiums, for example, should not be planted until nighttime temperatures are over 60⁰. I learned this the hard way after losing many caladiums, thinking they were just puny plants. They’re actually quite sturdy! But they don’t like temperatures below 60⁰.
Be sure your lawn equipment is ready to go
This is a great time to be sure all your outdoor stuff is in working order – a much better time than 3-4 weeks from now when everybody else discovers they have a problem with something. Make sure your mower blades are sharp and that the blower and weed eater and mower all start and run well. Change oil and spark plugs if you need to. Make sure your gardening gloves don’t have holes in them. (I think I have 6 or 7 assorted, unmatched gloves, due to a certain puppy I know…)
Don’t seed fescue now!
Fescue’s growing season starts in the fall – it’s a cool season grass. If you plant it now, it won’t have time to get a root system down before the heat of the summer, and you will lose a lot of it. Also, if you seed now, you won’t be able to put down weed control in those areas. Then, when your fescue thins out due to the heat, you’ll be invaded with weeds!
Don’t prune flowering shrubs like forsythia and azaleas
Most spring-blooming shrubs flower on last year’s wood. If you prune now, you’ll be cutting off a lot of flowers! Prune them after the blooms fade.
Be sure you have a crabgrass pre-emergent down at least by the end of March
A crabgrass pre-emergent will cut down immensely on this nasty, invasive weed for months! On the other hand, it’s very difficult to eradicate once it has germinated.
If you’re a DIY, you can buy crabgrass pre-emergent at your local home and garden store. If you’d like someone else to do it this year, we’d love to give you a free estimate!