March Gardening Tips

General Gardening Tips

• March ushers in the spring season and it's time to get your garden into shape. It's time to mulch and edge your garden beds and fertilize your existing plants.
• We recommend fertilizing your trees and shrubs with Merrifield's custom blended plant foods. Use Merrifield Flowering Plant Food for all your flowering plants and trees (azaleas, rhododendrons, hydrangeas, cherries and dogwoods) and Merrifield Tree & Shrub Food for all your evergreens and deciduous trees (hollies, boxwoods, yews, maples and oaks). Merrifield's custom blended plant foods contain slow-release nitrogen, sulfate of potash, iron and other micro-nutrients for overall plant growth and development.
• For all your new plantings, we recommend using Merrifield Starter Plant Food at the time of planting. This will encourage root growth and help get the plant off to a vigorous start.
• Flowering cherries, peaches, plums and pears bloom this month. Add one of these early spring bloomers to your garden.
• Prune roses and cut back liriope and ornamental grasses before new growth begins.
• If needed, now is the time to spray fruit trees, roses and other trees and shrubs with a dormant spray. Dormant spray should only be applied if the temperature is above freezing. Dormant sprays are recommended if your plants had a problem the previous year. Examples include hemlock woolly adelgid, pine bark adelgid, eyounomous scale, spruce mites and other pests. Since some dormant sprays are for insects (Dormant Oil) and others are for diseases (Lime Sulfur), and still others combine the two, we recommend that you speak with one of our plant specialists about the appropriate control for your particular plants.
• Plant pansies, violas and primroses for early spring color in the landscape.
• Fertilize bulbs with a slow-release fertilizer such as Merrifield Flowering Plant Food as they emerge.
• Summer blooming bulbs such as gladiolus, cannas and dahlias are now in stock.
• Divide and transplant perennials if needed. Merrifield has thousands of varieties of perennials to choose from with fresh shipments arriving this month.
• Apply Preen, Amaze or Cockadoodle Doo Organic Weed Control to garden beds to prevent weeds from germinating.
• J&P Roses are in stock at both Merrifield Garden Center locations. Plant now for beautiful color all summer long.
• Plant early vegetables such as onion sets, rhubarb, asparagus, lettuce, spinach, kale and potatoes.
• Start caladiums in pots indoors for deck and patio color after danger of frost is over.
• It's time to start seeds indoors for summer annuals and vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, impatiens, zinnias, etc.

Lawns

• March is a great time to get your lawn into shape by liming, seeding, fertilizing and preventing crabgrass and other weeds. Basic tips are provided here, but for more in depth instructions, please pick-up a copy of our brochure, "Guide to Year Round Lawn Care" or see a member of our staff.
• Seed the lawn with a good quality grass seed that is suited for the conditions of your lawn. Merrifield Garden Center has three custom blends of grass seed that our experts have formulated for our area - Merrifield Sunny, Merrifield Shady and Merrifield Tuff Play. See the lawn section of our web site for more information about these blends.
• Fertilize your lawn with one of Merrifield's custom blended lawn foods. We recommend Merrifield Premium for your spring application. If you are seeding the lawn, we recommend Merrifield Select. Both of these products contain slow-release nitrogen, sulfate of potash and Granusol Iron.
• If needed, lime the lawn to raise soil pH. Lawns prefer a pH range of 6.2 - 6.8. If your tests show a level lower than 6.0, or you have not limed the lawn in the past two years, you should lime at the rate of 50 lb. of lime per 1,000 square feet of lawn area. This will raise the pH 1/2 point. If you need to apply more lime, wait six weeks between applications.
• Prevent crabgrass in the lawn by applying Crab-Ex (Dimension)(if not seeding) or a product containing Tupersan (if seeding) in late March or early April.
• If you are not seeding, you can also prevent broadleaf weeds in the lawn by applying Portrait in March.

House Plants

• Feed houseplants with a good quality indoor plant food such as Jack's Classic (water-soluble powder) or Osmocote (slow-release granular).
• If needed, re-pot root bound houseplants to a larger pot. Merrifield stocks a full line of containers, including terra cotta, wood, concrete, ceramic and plastic. Use Merrifield Potting Mix when repotting houseplants.
• Check the leaves of your houseplants for insects or any other problems. If needed, bring in a representative sample and one of our plant specialists will diagnose the problem and recommend the appropriate control.

Additional Information

• Spring Lawn Care
• Crabgrass Control
• Grub Control
• Deer Resistant Plants
• Fruit Tree Spray Program
• Preparing Vegetable or Flower Beds
• Moss and Algae in Lawns
• Pest Appearance Timetable
• Mulch, Soil & Stone Coverage
• Proper Planting Instructions

March Reminders:

• Merrifield Garden Center's free informational seminars continue through March on a wide variety of gardening topics. Classes are held at both locations each Saturday morning, so be sure to pick-up a full class schedule.
• Tune in to "Merrifield's Gardening Advisor" television program, which airs every Saturday at 8 am on NEWSCHANNEL 8. This interesting and informative program provides you with great gardening ideas and answers your call-in questions.
• Spring is upon us so make an appointment with one of our landscape designers to make p