Rohde’s March Organic Gardening Calendar

Daylight Savings Time begins Sunday March 14, 2010, 2:00 am.

Average Date of Last Spring Frost: March 15^th, 2010.

First day of Spring (Spring Equinox): March 20, 2010; 12:32 pm CDT (Central Daylight Time).

We are in USDA Cold Hardiness Zone 8a with an annual minimum temperature of 15 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit and in Texas AgriLife Extension District 4 (East Region) - North (Dallas).

The latest (Feb 4, 2010) NOAA ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) advisory and predictions says that we had “a strong and mature El Niño episode”, though it is weakening now. It also says that below normal temperatures and above normal rain fall will continue through spring, April-May, and maybe into summer. It doesn’t say how “below” or “above” anything is going to be, but it seems to be quite a bit so far. So it looks like a cooler, wetter spring this year. This El Niño is responsible for the warm, dry, crappy winter conditions in Vancouver at the Olympics.

March is can be the busiest gardening month of the year. Landscape plants can still be planted and it’s time to plant your summer vegetable and flower gardens, and install new turf grasses. Also fertilizing and pruning can still be done if not done last month.

The last spring frost or freeze is the middle of June. What does this mean? It means it could freeze any day this month and maybe even in the first part of April. This date is an average of the past 30 years’ last freeze dates. Watch the weather forecasts!

Vegetables & Annual Fruits

What to plant and when

Transplant or sow seeds for beets, carrots, kohlrabi, bunching onion transplants for scallions, peas, asparagus crowns, broccoli, cabbage, chinese cabbage, cauliflower, and Irish potato seeds first thing this month.

Sow seeds for rutabaga, collards, mustard, and radishes anytime this month.

Transplant onions to get bulbs for this year, and sow seeds for swiss chard, greens, kale, and turnips (yuk) no later than the 2nd week of March.

Transplant or sow seeds for lettuce and spinach no later than the 3^rd week of March.

Sow seeds for beans, corn, and cucumbers starting the 4^th week of March.

Transplant tomatoes and sow seeds for squash, and watermelon starting the last week of the month if weather is warm enough.

These planting times seem rather specific. Why’s this? Each plant has a minimum and maximum soil temperature in which the seeds can germinate. There is also a optimum or best temperature for maximum germination, and a optimum temperature range for acceptable germination. Also some plants need, after germination, a certain length of day or number of days of a minimum or maximum temperature or number of days of sunlight, or some combination of these conditions to mature, flower, fruit, or die. All of this needs to be considered in determining what plant can be planted when and where. Doing this is what Aggies are for.

These conditions change with the weather too, so these dates are not set in stone.

Fertilize

Fertilize your seed starts and transplants with Rohde’s Foliar Juice. This product contains Manure tea, fish soluables, kelp extract, molasses, and magnesium sulfate (epsom salts). Everything a growing young plant needs in a quickly usable form. Add Green Sense Worm Castings, Green Sense Vegetable and Flower food or Green Sense Rose food to the holes and soil. Green Sense All Purpose Lawn and Garden fertilizer isn’t a bad choice either. Green Sense Kelp Extract contains a large number of trace minerals plus growth-promoting hormones called auxins, gibberellins and cytokinins which work as potent rooting hormones for soaking or drenching new transplants from 3” herbs to 65 gallon trees. Kelp helps improve seed germination, helps increase storage life of fruits and vegetables, helps strengthen frost resistance in hardy plants and helps build resistance to insects and fungus diseases.

For other fertilizing considerations, Rohde’s carries Alfalfa Meal in 50lb bags. Alfalfa in is a nutritious forage grass used for animal feed. It’s a good organic fertilizer by itself, but it’s fame is that it contains triaconatol, a fatty acid that is a potent stimulant of plant growth. It is included in our Rose Food. Rohde’s also carries Cotton Seed Meal in 5lb & 50lb bags, which is an excellent source of slow release organic nitrogen. Nitrogen is the first element to be used up by the heat of summer and watering.

Herbs

You can still plant cool season herbs but do so quickly. Most cool season herbs will not likely survive when it gets hot. Most warm season herbs like the warmer nights of around 50°F or greater we should have toward the end of the month, but watch for freezes. Be ready to cover your plants if it does freeze. Like most perennial transplants, you can plant perennial herb anytime.

Warm weather

• Basil (full sun): Use in all tomato dishes
• Bay, Sweet
• Culantro
• Ginger
• Lavender
• Lemon balm and Lime balm
• Lemon Verbena
• Lemongrass (full sun)
• Mints (partial shade)
• Oregano: Perennial in mint family. Name for several different plants. Two most popular are the Italian and the Mexican Oregano.
• Rosemary (full sun to partial shade)
• Sage (full sun): Small short lived, 2-6 yrs, perennial evergreen shrub
• Scented Geranium (full sun to partial shade)
• Sesame: Annual
• Texas Marigold Mint (full sun to partial shade)
• Thyme (dapple sun) Does better in summer if started in fall to establish the roots
• Winter Savory

Cool weather

• Borage
• Caraway: Biennial. The first year it grows to less than 12 inches & grows a carrot like edible taproot. The second year it grows up to 2 feet and forms the flower heads that produce seeds.
• Chamomile: Daisy like annual. Famous for the dried flower tea to calm the nerves to promote sleep.
• Chervil (partial shade)
• Chives: onion and garlic. Cool weather but will grow it the summer.
• Coriander / cilantro (full sun)
• Dill (full sun): Short-lived perennial. Fed on by the large Black Swallowtail butterfly larva, Papilio polyxenes, along with other species in the carrot family, Apiaceae.
• Fennel
• Lovage: Perennial.
• Marjoram, Sweet: Perennial. A woody cousin of Oregano with a more delicate, sweet flavor
• Parsley: Cool weather herbs both curly and Italian
• Sage (full sun): Small short lived, 2-6 yrs, perennial evergreen shrub.
• Salad Burnet: Grows best in the cool weather but it will survive most summers.
• Sorrel
• Tarragon (partial shade)

We carry over 130 varieties of herbs throughout the spring, summer, and fall.

Trim back dead parts of your perennial herbs like rosemary and lavender.

Flowers

Annual flowers

Now’s a popular time to make hanging baskets of annuals that are flowering now like alyssum, dianthus, geranium and petunia. Shady annuals are also good choices for hanging baskets.

Start planting warm season annuals, toward the end of the month when the soil warms, and freeze threat is past.

You can still plant cool-season annuals such as petunias and snapdragons if you want.

Perennial flowers

Perennial can always be planted.

Our availability increases with each warm sunny day.

Fertilize

“See Vegetable Fertilizing”

Other jobs

Prune dead foliage of established perennials when you see new growth and can tell what is dead.

Divide summer- and fall-flowering perennials if needed soon, while they are still dormant.

Protect cold tender flowers during freezes.

Water and Mulch if needed.

Ornamental Grasses

Ornamental Grasses can be planted now, usually as transplants.

Cut back dead tops on established grasses to short clumps as new growth starts.

Divide big clumps up every three years or so to keep them healthier and looking better. Usually the grass will start to grow around the edges and not in the middle leaving a dead spot. Last month I mentioned doing this while the grass is still dormant like you would most plants, but some sources suggest dividing just as the grass breaks dormancy and starts greening or even while they are actively growing. Regardless, do so by spring to give the grass roots time to recover before the extremes of the coming summer and winter.

Trees, Shrubs & Vines

Planting

Plant spring-flowering shrubs, trees and vines now.

Fruit trees, pecans, berries, and grapes are also available at Rohde’s.

While fall and winter is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs, it’s still a good time to do so now. You just want to get them in the ground as soon as possible to allow the roots to start getting established before the stress of summer comes.

Choose plants in containers. It’s too late for bare rooted plants. Smaller container plants can get established faster and grow faster than larger balled & burlapped plants too.

Pruning

Finish pruning snow damaged trees and shrubs now. Most plants are coming out of dormancy by now, so normal pruning shouldn’t be done.

Exception is spring flowering trees, shrubs, and vines like Indian hawthorn, mountain laurel, forsythia, hydrangeas, quince, azaleas, camellias, spirea, flowering or ornamental fruit trees, wisteria, weigela, rose vines. Prune after they bloom if needed.

Don’t prune Oaks trees that are susceptible to Oak Decline disease unless there is snow or storm damage. The insect disease carrier, the Sap Beetle, will be active.

Fertilize

If you didn’t fertilize in February, do so now with Green Sense All Purpose Lawn & Garden Fertilizer.

Start fertilizing your garden, flower beds, and potted plants once a month with seed meals and rock powders and/or Green Sense Vegetable & Flower, or Rose food.

If you are growing normal hybrid tea, grandiflora and floribunda roses, you also need to begin spraying for blackspot, and mildew or they will be defoliated. Better to rip them out and replaced with “Earthkind” roses or antiques roses. Earthkind roses are selected for carefree growing, and antique roses are usually more resistant to pest and disease also since they have survived so long. Rohde’s has new rose plants in now. Howard Garrett has an Organic Rose Program you can follow to ensure the best care of your roses.

If you live in sandy soils or a “sporty” gardener in black clay, and are growing camellias and azaleas, fertilize after they bloom.

Other jobs

If you have cultured pecan or other nut trees and/or fruit trees, we recommend you follow Howard Garrett’s Organic Fruit and Pecan Tree Program. http://dirtdoctor.com/organic/garden/view_question/id/2611/. It mainly revolves around the holistic approach of most of the organic program in establishing the best growing condition and health of the plants so they can ward off problems and disease before they start. It’s easier to prevent than cure.

Lawn, Turf Grasses & Ground Covers

Plant

You can start laying sod or plugs at the end of the month.

Fertilize

If you didn’t fertilize in February, do so now with Green Sense All Purpose Lawn & Garden Fertilizer. If you are applying Corn Gluten Meal for a pre-emergent, you can add humate or dry molasses, and make this combination a complete fertilizing for your yard.

A strong growing lawn is the permanent solution to weeds.

Spread up to a 1/2 inch layer of compost to poorly growing parts of the lawn.

Watering, Mowing

If you already have cool-season weeds established, corn gluten meal will not have an effect on them, but mowing before they go to seed will help eliminate many of them. Do not scalp your lawn, but you may need a couple of times a week.

Trim or mow groundcover beds before spring growth begins. This will even them up and clean them up. Remove dead and damaged parts or plants and replace.

Pests, Disease & Weeds

For pre-emergent weed control, apply corn gluten meal at 20 pounds per 1000 square feet. Don’t use if you are going to seed for bermuda.

It’s may be too cold for Green Sense 8% Vinegar to work it’s best on weeds, but used on a warm day with pulling and mowing can control them until the lawn comes in.

Watch out for lawn fungal problems with the wet weather we are having. We are still in an El Niño weather pattern with a cooler and wetter spring forecast. Ideal for lawn fungus. Consider a preventive program with Rohde’s aerating your lawn and treating it with corn meal and or Actinovate. Actinovate is an organic bacteria (Streptomyces lydicus strain WYEC 108) that protects lawn roots from a wide range of soil borne diseases and root decay fungi. Along with a soil test and proper fertilizing, this will give you the best control over lawn fungus problems. Remember, you will have the fungus infection long before you see it, and it will more difficult to control.

Consider applying Rohde’s beneficial nematodes now, as fleas, ants, termites, and other soil pest are becoming active.

General Pests & Diseases

Rohde’s carriers the full complement of organic pest and disease controls, for both inside and out. Stop by and see.

A wet cool spring can promote ants, slugs, pillbugs, aphids, snails, slugs, pillbugs, mosquitoes, turf fungi, tomato/potato blight, black spot, powdery mildew, and other insects that like the abundant tender lush foliage.

These same conditions that benefits plant fungus can also benefit disease fungus of insects and their eggs. This goes for good insects and bad. Same with a late freeze. Newly hatched insects could suffer, both good and bad.

Results may be that predatory insect populations will be slowed down while pest insects would increase big.

For slugs, use "Sluggo" bait. We also have copper tape for raised beds and special plants. Also use traps as no one treatment works as well as several different kinds.

Can still use a Dormant Oil on plants susceptible to scale, aphids, spider mites, and other insects and some fungus. See February’s Calendar.

See lawn section for soil-borne fungi.

For tomato blight, add corn meal and compost to the soil, mulch good, rotate planting beds, space plants farther apart for good air circulation, use tomato cages to keep branches off the ground. Try Plant Wash to remove spores.

For other foliage fungal problems like black spot and powdery mildew, we have plant oils, potassium bicarbonate, Serenade, copper sprays, dusting sulfur, Plant Wash.

Isolated cases of aphids can be treated with a strong blast of water, Green Sense Citrus Oil, one of our other selections of plant oils, insecticidal soap, and/or release of ladybugs into the garden. We have these too.

Along with the lady bugs, we also carry green lacewings, and predatory wasp to help control of aphids, spider mites, thrips, caterpillars and other pests. Call for availability.

We have Bt, or Bacillus thuringiensis products for control caterpillars.

Garlic sprays will keep mosquitoes away, help keep slugs, snails, and pillbugs from eating your young plants, and it works as a great fungicide too.

Grubs are not effected by the cool wet spring, but are not a problem now anyway. They are not eating anything. They are turning into june bugs that will come out later in the summer to mate and lay eggs. The newly hatched grubs are the grass root eaters in the late summer and fall.

Other Things to Do this Month

A killing freeze is possible anytime this month. Be prepared to cover new plants.

Gradually start moving winter sheltered house plants and tender plants outside toward end of month. Put in shade first and increase sun a few hours each week.

Add mulch and/or compost to bare or thin ground.

Check out, repair and perform maintenance on lawn equipment and tools.

Clean out and repair any bird houses, baths, and feeders. Clean bird houses with soap and water, inside and out. Scrap out gunk with a putty knife. Wear a mask to not inhale nesting material that might have pests in it. Soak in 10% bleach solution for 20 minutes. Rinse out three times at least and let dry completely. Any remaining bleach will evaporate. Repaint or stain with acrylic products that are labeled as being safe for babies to chew on. Caulk if needed with aquarian safe silicone. Titebond III is one of the strongest wood glues, is waterproof and does pretty good at gap filling. Check hardware for proper attachment

Have landscape and garden soil tested now to know how to prepare your gardens and lawns for the spring. Rohde’s recommends “Texas Plant & Soil Lab” at 5115 West Monte Cristo Road, Edinburg, Texas 78541-8852, 956-383-0739. They can give you organic recommendations.

Most of this calendar is designed for Dallas, Tx in USDA Hardiness Zone 8a, with a predominant soil type of blackland prairie clay.

The best laid plans of mice and men.

On February 11^th I woke up to one of the prettiest sites I had ever seen. My new neighborhood, Forest Hills, was covered in snow. The ground was fluffed up with about three inches of pure white powder. The branches of trees had a delicate mantle draping over the sides of dark brown, gray or almost black bark.

The beauty of the scenery made me smile, if only for a minute.

As I stepped out the door and unto the concrete landing I noticed that the snow that I was admiring was not a light powder but a heavy wet blob. Thick, heavy, damaging.

As I drove to work I admired the scene of White Rock Lake, the glass like smoothness of the water surrounded by the white snow on the shore. A scattering of ducks just at the edge of the water, some smart enough to have climbed onto floating tree trunks.

The Arboretum’s neatly trimmed row of hedges gracefully snow-caped as if placed by the landscape crew for part of their winter exhibits.

A few more miles and I arrived to my nursery. Wow! What a beautiful place the snow blanket the parking lot so evenly and pristinely that I did not want to drive on it. The plants all around the front of the property made the scene delightful. The snow covering the roof of the largest greenhouse: dreadful.

I walked into the store, turned the burglar alarm off as my internal alarm screamed in my brain. “Caution, Caution!”

Out the side door of the store and into the 120-foot greenhouse I noticed that the roof was sagging low from the weight of the snow. I started to shake the canvas hoping that the snow would slide off as it has in the past.

It would not budge. In the past we had ice accumulations that once you broke a section, it would slide off normally causing an avalanche effect. But ice would form into one large piece. The snow we received was made of 10 billion individual particles that were not freezing together, but stubbornly fighting for independence. The warmth in the greenhouse caused by the shivering plants was helping the snow stay separated, as the flakes were not able to freeze together.

I climbed a ladder to reach the 15-foot high peak but the 20 feet from the end of the structure to the middle of the house. I started to rake the snow off of the roof when a coworker arrived and immediately started to help. Despite our efforts we were not getting much headway as the falling snow quickly replaced what we removed. And then another employee arrived. And another.

Now we were advancing quickly. Even though we were not able to reach the entire length of the roof we could see that the roof was lifting again. A friend of mine, who also came to help, went and rented two kerosene heaters.

One of the guys went out to look for a long pole to make a rake long enough to reach the entire length of the roof. Thirty minutes later he came back with a 15 foot galvanized pole. He smashed down the end so that he could drill two screws through the metal and into a 2 X 4, creating a very long and very effective rake. He immediately began raking the snow from the peak of the roof all the way down. He also began bragging about his intelligence, as he was the one to invent such a wonderful snow-removing device.

“Where did you get that pipe?”, one of the others present asked.

“From the greenhouse that has already fallen over. Of course!”

Of course? I left what I was doing to go check on the other greenhouse. Luckily the house that had fallen was a very inexpensive “do-it-ourselves” using leftover pipe from cyclone fences. Okay, I can handle the repairs of this “structure”.

By 11:00 am the heaters were hard at work, the interior of the greenhouse quickly reached 60 degrees allowing the snow to melt as soon as it touched the roof.

While the heaters were warming the interior of our main greenhouse the guys moved on to a second house. This greenhouse is 20 feet wide and 110 feet long but only 8 foot tall.

The guys quickly knocked the snow off and moved to a fourth house, the smallest one we have and within minutes cleared it off.

After thanking the guys that helped and sending them home, I stayed at the nursery and refueled the heaters. Around 9:00 p.m. I listened to several news reports that said the snow would be tapering off and moving out of the area by 2:00 a.m.

The heaters lasted about 6 hours each. The temperature in the house was 66 degrees, I set my phone’s alarm for 2:00 a.m. as a reminder to check the weather and make sure that the snow had stopped. I was tired. I left.

In case you are wondering and I KNOW that you are, I did wake up, I did check the Weather Channel as well as KRLD. The snow was out of the area. I got up went to the window where I lingered just for a while to admire the beauty of the sight, before realizing that indeed the snow was no longer falling.

I went back to bed pulled the blankets up to my neck and fell into a deep sleep, comforted not only by the blanket but the realization that the snow was no longer falling. If my greenhouses had not collapsed, they surely would be safe now.

I woke up later in the morning relaxed and sure of the fact that my three remaining greenhouses were safe and standing tall.

After a long hot shower I was ready to go out into the cold but beautiful winter wonderland. Just before I opened the front door I realized that I should put some clothes on, I mean some extra layers of clothes, just in case I needed to get more snow off of my…? Yep, greenhouses. (Just wanted to make sure you were paying attention.)

I pulled into the nursery’s parking lot and saw that there was no snow whatsoever on the roof of the first house. I was so happy and confident that I went straight into the store, got on line and prepared the shipping labels for our Amazon orders. Still feeling confident, I actually packaged all the orders. While I was doing the last order Sally came in the store.

“Oh, I am sorry about the greenhouses.”

“Well, luckily we only lost the cheapest one.”

“I guess you have not...” My heart sank, my knees buckled. I stopped breathing. “…been out there, have you?”

I tried to act calm and finished what I was doing. However, in my disguised hurry, I walked out without a jacket and went to inspect the large greenhouse. STILL STANDING!!!

I walked North to the end of the building and stopped in my tracks.

The entire greenhouse all 110 feet had collapsed on top of our new shipment of plants. It looked like a pancake as it had gone from 8 foot to less then 2 feet. The house with all the snow fell down on top of a thousand plants.

I went back inside shivering from the cold ….or the financial loss… I did not know.

“I don’t understand,” I exclaimed out loud as I walked back inside the store.

The greenhouse I just saw is called a “roundhouse” because it has rounded features that allow the snow to slide off without allowing accumulations of snow to crush the structure.

Hmm, you know what is funny, as I exclaimed the last sentence it occurred to me at that very moment: “Well then why the heck did the guys have to knock the snow off the structure???”

Because the greenhouse was empty and did not have a plastic covering that would have allowed the snow to slide off.

We had left the shade cloth on. The shade cloth has pores that allowed the soft snow to seep in. Once the snow had snuggled in more snow fell on top. The plastic meant to keep plants insulated as they created their own heat by evaporation or shivering, would have been a slippery surface that would not have allowed the snow to stick. Just like a Teflon coated frying pan.

I could have kicked my self for the oversight. I was with the guys as they removed snow from one of the houses. Karen, our store manager and I marveled at the beauty of the smaller house covered with snow, we commented on the warmth in the house in comparison to outside.

Despite all intentions: the snow removal, the rental of the heaters, my vigilance over the heaters and refueling I lost what amounts to a really good business day in the height of Spring. I was lucky. I was warm, I did not loose power, and I was open for business the next day.

We are rebuilding the greenhouse using more metal, making them stronger. We will once again test the theory of, “The best laid plans of mice and men.”