What To Do In March

Average last frost date in Central Texas: March 15!

Plant vegetable seeds. Beets, chard, collards, leaf lettuce, mustard, peas, radish, EARLY MARCH: Beans, endive LATE MARCH: Cantaloupe, corn, cucumber, eggplant, black-eyed peas, pumpkin, New Zealand spinach, summer squash, watermelon

Plant vegetable plants. Broccoli, chard, collards, endive, leaf lettuce, mustard, LATE MARCH: Pepper, tomato

Plant herbs. Seeds: All hot-weather herbs, such as basil, chives, epasote, milk thistle Plants: All hot-weather herbs and perennial herbs, such as artemesias, basil, bergamot, catmint or catnip, chives, comfrey, scented geranium, lemon grass, mints, oregano, pennyroyal, rosemary, santolina, thyme (Plant all of these the second half of the month. Avoid cool-season herbs such as cilantro/coriander, dill, etc.)

Plant flower/ornamental seeds. Cleome, cypress vine, gomphrena (globe amaranth), marigold, moonflower vine, morning glory, sunflower, flowering tobacco (Nicotiana), and many more LATE MARCH: Castor bean, gourds, luffa

Plant annual flower/ornamental plants. Cockscomb, coleus, gomphrena, lion's tail, torenia

Plant perennial plants. Cigar plant, cleome, plumbago, sedum, spiderwort March is the last reasonably mild month to plant such things as trees and big shrubs. Any later and these plants will encounter too much stress in the summer heat.

Plant bulbs. Caladium, calla, canna, daylily, and elephant ear are the main spring and summer ornamentals that can be planted the second half of this month. Planting these warm-season bulbs while the soil is too cool can cause them to rot.

Plant ground covers and borders.

Spray foliage with seaweed. Seaweed, sprayed morning or evening on the foliage of lawns, trees, shrubs, flowers, herbs, and vegetables, benefits all plants with hormones and trace minerals. Regular spraying with seaweed ­ once every week or two weeks ­ can increase plants' heat tolerance, winter hardiness, and pest and disease resistance.

Aerate the lawn. It is best to aerate after mid-March, when there is less chance of a freeze damaging the opened-up lawn. Add compost before or after aerating for greater benefits.

Topdress lawns with compost. This can be done any time of year, except for mid-summer. However, if the lawn is topdressed in spring, the compost can help save water in the summer. Some sources say this one action in your yard can cut your water use on the lawn by half! Throw no more than ½-inch of good manure compost on top of the lawn, rake in, and water.

Clean up debris from winter. Remove the hiding places for bugs and diseases by raking up leaves and gathering fallen limbs and fruits. Put them in your compost pile, and turn regularly to keep pile hot.

Till in winter cover crops. Allow two weeks for the cover crop to decompose in the soil before planting there again.

Find out what your beneficial insects look like. Ladybug larvae and pupae may look like pests when you see them, but they can be your ally against aphids and many other pests! Acquire a good insect identification book, such as the Texas Bug Book by Malcolm Beck and Howard Garrett, or The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control, published by Rodale Press.

Check for aphids on new growth. One surprising solution is to spray them with fish emulsion. One step stronger would be Safer's Insecticidal Soap spray. Sometimes a hard blast with water will dislodge them. Whatever you do, do something every 3 - 5 days, until you get control, as they reproduce rapidly! Note that Asclepias (Butterfly Weed) and aphids seem to always go together. Don't worry too much about them.

Check for whiteflies or thrips (no-see-ums). Many small whiteflies will fly when a branch is bumped. Thrips are almost invisible, slender, pale tan-colored insects that attack blooms - of roses especially - before you know they are there. Get an accurate diagnosis and use Ultra-Fine lightweight horticultural oil for infestations.

Spray new foliage on crape myrtles with "Cloud Cover." This is a polymer that is a preventative for powdery mildew. If the leaves show powdery mildew before you get to them with Cloud Cover, spray with milk first. Yes, cow's milk is the latest, greatest control for powdery mildew. Use skim milk, or whole milk diluted with water, one part whole milk to nine parts water. Spray milk every 5 ­ 7 days until you get control, then spray Cloud Cover. Spray Cloud Cover again whenever there is a new flush of growth.

Take action against plum curculio. This is a pest of predominantly peaches, but ­ according to the books ­ it may also affect apple, apricot, persimmon, plum, pear, quince, and grape. Plum curculio is the little beetle that makes a crescent shaped scar on the fruit when it lays its eggs inside, which then hatch into those famous "worms" in our fruit. The plum curculio adult is a beetle with a snout ­ it looks somewhat like a weevil. It is dark-colored, about 3/16 inch long, with gray and white mottling. The adult spends the winter in leaves, bark, debris, grass or other protected areas near the fruit trees. The adult curculio becomes active again at blossom time, flies up to the young fruit and starts feeding. There may be two or three generations per year here in the South.

Knowing this insect's life cycle helps us to control it. Since we know where the adult overwinters, it helps to clean up and destroy debris, fallen fruit, leaves, and the like around and near the fruit trees promptly. Because the adults and/or the pupae may be in the soil around the tree over the winter and throughout the growing season, cultivating this area to a depth of a couple of inches ­ if this can be done without destroying too many roots ­ may destroy the curculio before it emerges. A clever alternative to this method, if you have access to chickens, is to pen a chicken or two in the root zone of the tree for a day or so to effectively seek and destroy the critters. Once this step is completed, however, maintaining at least a four-inch mulch on the root zone around the tree should be a more permanent preventative control, according to Howard Garrett in his Texas Organic Gardening Book. Layering one to two inches of good manure compost on the soil, with two to four inches of mulch on top of that is ideal. Just be sure not to pile compost or mulch up on the trunk of the tree, or else it will begin to rot the trunk.

While cultivating and mulching can prevent perhaps a majority of these pests, it may still be necessary to spray. Timing is crucial. It is recommended to spray when 75% of the flower petals have fallen. Unfortunately, since the curculio is a beetle with a hard shell, a pyrethrin or a pyrethrin/rotenone spray may be the only organic pesticide strong enough to kill the pest. For the mildest control method, place a sheet underneath the tree, and knock the beetles out of the tree with a padded stick. Finally, spray the leaves regularly (weekly is best, in the early morning or late evening) with a seaweed and fish emulsion combination for prevention.

Check and repair your watering systems now before the heat hits!

Take a hike! Enjoy one of our many beautiful trails around town. See how the Greatest Landscaper -- Mother Nature -- designs, plants, and mulches our biggest garden on earth!

(Thanks to Howard Garrett's Texas Organic Gardening Book, the Travis County Master Gardener Association's Garden Guide for Austin and Vicinity, and the staff of the Natural Gardener for some of this month's tips).

See our March Growing Tips

See our March Articles: Reflections on Life and Organic Gardening

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