March Lawn & Landscape Tips
The warm days of February have delivered us an early launch toward spring.
It is common at the beginning of March to be reeling from a late February cold spell while anticipating the soon to come burst of life in our landscapes.
Hey! It’s time to get outside. Don’t delay, spring is on the fast track this year.
It’s time to walk the neighborhood.
It’s time to stroll the Myriad Gardens and Scissortail Park.
It’s March! Our world is bursting to life!
March, the month to be outside and discover something new in the landscape!
Enjoy every minute of every spring-like day!
Here are a few lawn and landscape tasks you should tackle this month:
The annual tulip color show is starting in landscapes around the metro.
Flowering Peach is an early spring blooming small tree that adds splashes of pinks and reds to the March landscape.
Forsythia
If you haven't already, cut your fescue lawn to remove the freeze damaged leaf tips and soon the lawn will return to full color and start growing.
Spring Lawn Maintenance
Get the mower out and get started. It is much easier to remove the winter damaged leaf blades before the turf begins to green-up. Remember, scalping on the lowest setting isn’t required and isn’t recommended. Simply mow the lawn at the height you plan to start the mowing season.
For most Bermuda lawns, the second setting is recommended. For fescue, start on the second or third notch on your mower.
We are often asked about dethatching at this time of year.
What is dethatching? Dethatching is the removal of excessive thatch builds up on the soil surface by using a vertical power rake.
But, unless you have a thick layer of ½-1” or more of thatch, dethatching causes more damage to the crown of the plants than it does good. So, with only a few exceptions, the best method for reducing thatch is an initial spring lawn maintenance followed by aeration after spring green-up. Unnecessary dethatching and scalping the lawn too low removes the canopy opening the lawn up to disease and weeds.
Need more info on the first mowing of the season? Check out last week’s post!
With a warmer than normal February, tulips are already starting to grace the landscape with bright colors.
Lawn Maintenance
As soil temperatures climb and occasional spring rains return, as soon as you remove the winter damaged leaf tips from your fescue lawns, they will regain color and start growing. Start your cool season lawn off right by maintaining it at 2 ½ - 3”. When it starts growing mow frequently enough that you are never removing more than 1/3 of the leaf blade per cutting. So, if you plan to maintain a 3” level, don’t allow the lawn to grow past 4.5” without giving it a trim.
If you have warm season turf, bermuda or zoysia, after you cut the lawn for the first time to remove the brown winter damaged leaf blades, most likely you can put off regularly scheduled lawn mowing until April.
Saucer Magnolia is a small deciduous tree with saucer-shaped white, pink or purple blooms in early spring. It makes a great specimen tree from the spectacular spring blooms to its spreading, multi-trucked shape.
Tulips.
Saucer Magnolia is a spring favorite.
The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens' Dallas Blooms continues through April 12th. They claim Dallas Blooms is the largest annual floral festival in the southwest.
One of the first shrubs to announce spring is forsythia. Interesting tidbit: when forsythia starts blooming it is an indicator that crabgrass has started germinating.
Lawn Weed Control
Summer annual weeds begin germinating when soil temperatures consistently reach 55 degrees. With the above normal temperatures through most of February soil temperatures reached 55 degrees earlier than normal, the third week of February, and then dipped back into the upper 40s after last weekend’s colder nighttime temperatures. Unless we have another cold spell, we are on course to see soil temperatures consistently reach 55 degrees in early March.
If you have not applied the first spring pre-emergent yet, please do so as quickly as possible. Whether you apply a pre-emergent yourself, or we do it for you, always follow instructions. Watering is a required step to move the herbicide into the top ½” of soil.
Need to know more about the timing of the first pre-emergent application?
This is the month landscapes are filled with the bright pinkish-red colors of Redbuds, the Oklahoma State tree
Lawn Fertilization
This month is a good time to start fertilizing your cool season lawns. Use a fertilizer with 25-30% nitrogen. Cool season lawns need to be fed more in the spring and fall when they are actively growing, and less in the summer.
If you have a warm season lawn, wait until lawns begin greening up to apply the first fertilizer application.
Bed Weed Control
March is an excellent month to apply a plant safe pre-emergent to your landscape plantings. Use caution in selecting the product to make sure it is safe for your plants. When possible, select a granular pre-emergent mixed with a fertilizer containing approximately 20% nitrogen. Doing so will give your plants a good spring feeding while preventing weeds at the same time.
Tree & Shrub Care
If you struggled with aphids, mites or scale in the past year you still have time to apply a dormant oil application for another couple of weeks. Dormant oils work by suffocating, smoother overwintering insects. Oil blocks the air holes causing the insect to suffocate. Dormant oils are an eco-friendlier approach to insect control by reducing the need for harsher control methods later.
Hall | Stewart’s Tree & Shrub Care Program Application #2 starts in March and continues through April. The application includes systemic insecticide and fertilizer. The application is designed to make sure your landscape investment is healthy and growing this season.
Spring is a good time to fertilize trees and shrubs with slow-release nitrogen, high quality phosphorus and potassium as well as micronutrients to provide consistent, extended feeding. This formulation is ideal for improving tree and ornamental development and vigor without unwanted shoot growth.
Spring is also a good time to apply systemic insecticide to control sucking and chewing insects.
Pansies, as long as their crown was not damaged by January’s cold spell, are returning to life and will add color to the landscape well into May.
Hyacinth is one of the first spring blooming bulbs to add splashes of color to the landscape.
Not all the colors of spring are blooms. Be on the watch for the bright colors of new leaves such as the yellow, oranges and reds of Goldmound Spirea.
Mulch
Spring is a great time to mulch your landscape plantings. Maintaining a 2” layer of organic mulch will reduce weed population, retain soil moisture, and provide a more consistent soil temperature for plant roots. I find adding mulch an easier task in the spring when I am cleaning my landscape plantings for the first time.
Irrigation
It is always important to monitor rainfall and water based on need. This winter ranked as one of the driest for the Oklahoma City metro area. If forecasters are correct, we will receive a good rainfall this week. But until we get at least ½” rainfall, continue to monitor soil moisture and give your lawn and landscape a good soaking every 4 to 7 days. As temperatures warm up, gradually increase the frequency of watering but delay starting every other day watering cycle until late spring to early summer.
Flowering Quince is another shrub that is one of the first to bloom with branches loaded with red flowers before they leaf out.
Spring Seasonal Color
Pansies are the toughest winter annual color, but it is common for them to look a little freeze burned after the winter. As long as the crown of the plant was not damaged, they have started to return to life and bloom. The great thing about pansies is they add color to the landscape until it is warm enough to plant summer annuals.
Wait until April to plant impatient, begonia, geranium, etc. And remember, most summer annuals need the warmer soil temperatures of late April or May before they are planted. If you get in a hurry, you will end up planting your summer annual color twice. When planting remember most plants prefer well drained, organic soil and would prefer you add compost when planting.
Redbuds, Oklahoma’s State Tree, are off to an early start this year.
Seeding Fescue
March is the second-best time to overseed fescue. But it comes in a very distant second to seeding in the fall. Spring seeded fescue will come up very well and look very good till the summer heat arrives - then it fades quickly. Fescue, being a cool season grass, does not establish a sustainable root system when planted in the spring. Give your fescue lawn a chance to green up first to get a better feel on the overall condition of the lawn. If you still feel you have bare areas that need to be addressed now, seed this month but still plan on seeding again in the fall. In most cases waiting till fall to seed is best. Fall seeding allows you to focus on weed prevention and turf development in the spring and turf establishment in the fall when it is best.
Bridal Wreath Spirea will add graceful white blooms toward the end of March.
Creeping Phlox is one of the first perennials to announce spring has arrived.
Pruning
March is the time to do heavy pruning on your roses. March is also the best time to make a major reduction in the size of hollies, boxwoods and most broadleaf evergreens. Before spring growth arrives, you can successfully remove all the foliage back to the central leader if needed.
When it comes to hydrangeas, most gardeners feel uncertain and confused about when and how much to prune hydrangeas. The truth is most hydrangeas do not need to be pruned at all. It is common to have some branch die back after the winter in our area. A common mistake is to get in a hurry when pruning back the winter damage. Be patient, don’t get in a hurry to remove dead branches. Wait until late March or even April before pruning off the dead branches. Pruning earlier, or pruning to the ground in the spring, could reduce or eliminate blooming this season. When it is time to prune back the dead ends, make your cuts at an angle just above the highest green bud.
Wait until late March or even April to prune the dead tip branches from Hydrangeas. Prune the dead branch ends by making an angle cut just above the highest bud.
If you need help with any of your lawn and landscape tasks, or just have a few questions, please don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email.
Lorne Hall
Hall | Stewart Lawn + Landscape
(405)367-3873