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Gardening Calendar
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January
- Keep a garden journal. Consult your journal in the winter, so you can better plan for the growing season.
- Begin planning this year's vegetable garden Check local retail garden or nursery stores for seeds and seed catalogs.
February
- Repair winter damage to trees and shrubs
- Prune roses to 3-4 canes
- Prune fruit trees, shrubs, grapes and raspberries
- A few plants that do well in the cold and can be planted as soon as the ground is thawed and workable. They include lettuces, cabbage, spinach, and peas according to http://www.botanicalinterests.com
March
- Plan vegetable garden
- Use soil thermometer to know when to plant vegetables. Plant cool season crops when soil is consistently at or above 40 degrees
- Fertilize berries
April
- Use a soil thermometer to help you know when to plant vegetables. When soil is consistently above 60 degrees, some warm season vegetables can be planted.
- Allow foliage of spring-flowering bulbs to brown and die down before removing
- Spray apples and pears when buds appear
- Spread pre-emergent for crabgrass when the forsythia blooms
- Prepare irrigation system for summer
May
- Fertilize lawn
- Aerate lawn
- Plant dahlias, gladiolas and tuberous begonias in mid-May
- Plant warm season vegetables
- Manage weeds while they are small
- Monitor aphids on strawberries and ornamentals
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June
- Prune lilacs, forsythia, rhododendrons and azaleas after blooming
- Make sure raised beds receive enough water for plants to avoid drought stress
- 1st week: Spray cherry trees for cherry fruit fly as necessary if fruit is ripening
- 1st week: Spray for codling moth in apple and pear trees, as necessary
- Use yellow sticky traps to monitor for cherry fruit fly. About one week after the first fly is caught, spray cherries at appropriate intervals.
- Last week: Second spray for codling moth in apple and pear trees, as necessary
July
- Early morning is the best time to water vegetable and flower gardens to reduce evaporation.
- Fertilize lawn
- Hanging baskets need careful attention to watering and feeding during extended periods of hot weather
- Make sure lawn areas are receiving adequate water. Deep watering less often is more effective than frequent shallow watering
- Dig spring bulbs when tops have died down; divide and store or replant
- July 10-15: Spray peach and prune trees for peach tree borer, and peach twig borer, as necessary
- July 17-23: Third spray for codling moth in apple and pear trees, as necessary
- Begin to monitor for early and late blight on tomatoes
- Check leafy vegetables for caterpillars. Pick them off as they appear
- Remove cankered limbs from fruit and nut trees for control of diseases. Sterilize tools before each new cut.
- Plant beets, bush beans, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, kale and cabbage to provide fall and winter crops
August
- Clean and fertilize strawberry beds
- Prune raspberries, boysenberries and other can berries after harvest
- Monitor garden irrigation closely so crops and ornamentals don't dry out
- Make sure lawn areas are receiving adequate water. Deep watering less often is more effective than frequent shallow watering. (If you can see footprints on the grass it needs water)
- Prune cherry trees before fall rains begin to allow callusing in dry weather
- 1st week: If necessary, second spray for peach tree borer and/or peach twig borer
September
- 1st week: Fertilize lawn
- Harvest winter squash
- Harvest potatoes when the tops die down
- Optimal time for establishing a new lawn
- Divide peonies and iris
- Transplant woody ornamentals. Fall planting of trees and shrubs and perennials can encourage healthy root growth over the winter
- Plant daffodils, tulips and crocus for spring bloom
October
- Drain or blow out irrigation system, insulted valve mechanisms, in preparation of winter
- Place mulch over root of roses, azaleas, rhododendrons and berries for winter protection
- To suppress future pest problems, clean up annual flower beds and raised garden beds
- Clean, sharpen and oil tools and equipment before storing for winter
- Prune out dean fruiting canes in raspberries
- Plant garlic for harvesting next sumer
- Save seeds from vegetable and flower gardens. Store in a cool, dry location
- Plant ground covers and shrubs
- Dig and store geraniums, tuberous begonias, dahlias and gladiolas
- Last week: Fertilize lawn
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November
- Place mulch around berries for winter protection
- Water newly planted perennials, trees and shrubs every 6-8 weeks with a deep soaking to prevent drying out
- Wrap the trunks of young, thin-barked trees with paper tree wrap late in the month to prevent sunscald. Remove in April
- Treat peaches four weeks after leaf fall spray for peach leaf curl and shothole disease
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December
- Protect new landscape plants from wind. Use stakes, guy wires and/or windbreaks as needed
- Check stores flower bulbs, fresh vegetables, and fruits for rot and fungus problems
Some plants thrive in each other's company, but some just don't get along.
By Pillar to Post Home Inspectors
The cabbage family. Broccoli, cauliflower, kale and kohlrabi. The family does well with herbs like sage and mint, which repel the white cabbage butterfly. It also pairs well with the onion family.
Potatoes. They are good companions with the cabbage family, but keep them away from tomatoes and cucumbers, which share a common blight. According to harvesttotable.com, cucumbers protect from the Colorado potato beetle.
Tomatoes. They help protect asparagus from the asparagus beetle. Some gardeners report that basil seems to improve the flavor of tomatoes and of lettuce. Basil, like marigolds, also deter many garden insects. But keep basil away from potatoes, fennel and the cabbage family. Keep the mint away from tomatoes.
Garlic. In the onion family, garlic repels insects like the carrot fly. Plant it around fruit trees, roses, tomatoes and cabbage. It appears to have some protection against the Japanese beetle.
Corn, beans and squash. Known since pre-colonial times as "the three sisters," Native Americans planted them together. The corn plants support the bean vines. The beans add nitrogen to the soil, and the squash leaves keep the soil moist and block out weeds.
Cucumber is a good companion to the trio. Nearby sunflowers can help ward off pests from the corn. Keep the three sisters away from tomato plants, which attract some of the same pests.
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