Don’t commit crepe murder and 7 other tips for Columbia yard and garden prep work
Here’s what Delores Steinhauser says about this time of year.
“Enjoy it while you can before the heat comes in,.” the co-owner of Wingard’s Market in Lexington said.
This is the a time to watch life in your yard reemerge, she said.
“It’s an exciting time because everything is putting out new growth,” she said.
But it’s also not a time to sit back and look, unless you’re talking about your lawn.
It’s too late to apply pre-emergent to get rid of the weeds that have crept in and too early for fertilizer. Rule of thumb: don’t put down fertilizer until you’ve cut the grass twice.
Grass at this stage is like a baby, she said, struggling to grow.
But it is time to fertilize trees and bushes.
Steinhauser uses a basic fertilizer for both, although there are plenty of others for specific type of foliage.
Here are some more Steinhauser tips:
Do not commit crepe murder. Delicately prune the tops to form the shape you want and cut the sucker limbs from the bottom. If you want a small crepe myrtle, buy one. Some grow to 10 feet, others to 25. “Don’t butcher your plant that wants to be 25 feet,”she said.
Best time to plant shrubs and trees is in the fall, but spring works too. Be careful with the small roots as you take the plant from the container. These are the feeder roots that help the plant get established.
If you want to add trees to your yard, she says the perfect tree for the Midlands is any type of native oak. They provide a home for insects and caterpillars that birds native to the area feed on. That’s the conservationist side of her talking. For just plain beauty, she’d choose a Japanese maple, which comes in many sizes and shapes. And she thinks every yard should have a camellia, not native, but it flowers in the winter.
Steinhauser said a great reference centered on the Midlands is an almanac published by the Lexington County Master Gardeners.
She also had some pointers about preparing a vegetable garden:
For a first garden, start small. “Don’t try a 25-by-35 row garden,” she said. Use raised beds, 4-by-4 or 4-by-8. Do not use soil from the yard. A garden mix augmented with compost is perfect.
Five-gallon buckets can also be used for individual tomato plants.
Make sure you have a close watering source, especially for tomatoes that are prone to blossom end rot, which is exactly what it sounds like, rotting from the place the tomato formed from the bloom. Use calcium nitrate to prevent this as well.
Set the starter plants in the ground, fertilize monthly.
“Sit back and watch them grow,” she said.
This story was originally published March 18, 2022 at 9:07 AM.