March gardening calls for soil preparation. Also, here are some tips on beets
The first week of March has early blooms popping up all over as crocus, winter pansies and early flowering trees and shrubs sing, “This bud’s for you.”
Some of us might indeed be drunk with delight and tipsy with anticipation as winter melts away.
Time to sober up. We still have freezing nights and frosty morns, so do not set cold sensitive plants that you have been overwintering indoors outdoors just yet. Do not plant seeds of heat-loving crops such as tomatoes, squash and pumpkins outdoors or even indoors just yet. Starting seed too early indoors will earn you long and leggy seedlings as they search for the sun.
What you can do if weather is mild is to fertilize perennials, roses, lawns and the vegetable plot.
This time of year when the soil is cold, use a slower release or organic plant food. Be sure to not overfeed with fast-acting liquid plant foods as plants are still partly dormant.
To improve soil that is clay and slow to drain, or sandy and dries out quickly, the solution is the same. Add organic matter to your soil. Mulch empty vegetable beds and the area between perennials with aged dairy manure or compost . You do not need to work the lashings of manure/compost into the soil. Let the worms do the job.
If you mulch now you do not need to pull young annual weeds such as shot weed or oxalis — a few inches of heavy, wet compost will smother these young weeds. Nothing you do this spring will make as big an impact on the health of your plants as improving the soil now — except weeding. Pull or smother weeds this week before they go to seed.
Q. When do I prune roses? When do I fertilize roses? We have a new house with lots of rose plants. Help, please! — M.B., Maple Valley
A. Congrats on the new garden, and relax.
Roses are forgiving, so although now is a great time to prune roses, you can wait another month and take your time to watch some videos, go to a nursery class or check out some books to understand all the different ways that experts prune and feed roses in Western Washington.
In general, prune out the three D’s: anything dead, diseased or damaged. Then shorten the tall canes or branches by at least one third. Remove any old foliage if there is disease.
Next fertilize with alfalfa pellets, granular rose food, organic rose food or even a combination of the three. Roses are gluttons and love all fertilizer. You will learn more about the controversies, timing, techniques and best roses to grow once you visit a local nursery for a class or join your local garden club or rose society.
Q. I heard you talk about the benefits of houseplants at the Tacoma Home Show. You need to warn everyone not to have the Peace lily in their home if they have cats. Lilies kill cats. People with pets might not be able to have indoor plants. — B.L. , Tacoma
A. The Peace lily can be toxic or even deadly to pets if enough is eaten, but it is not a true lily so this houseplant is not as deadly as the real lilies or members of the Lillium family. Although some pets like to taste all types of plants, you can still enjoy the healthy benefits of plants and pets by growing the common indoor plants that are considered nontoxic.
For pet safe houseplants, Windmill Gardens in Sumner has listed phalenaosis or moth orchid, bamboo, palms, peperomia, spider plant, prayer plant, cast iron plant, maidenhair fern and pilea as just a few.
Q. I want to grow beets in my new garden. What type of soil do they need? When can I plant beet seeds? — F.C., Sumner
A. You can’t beat the beet for nutrition and long harvest in a small space, and our cool summers make for great beet-growing country.
You can plant the seeds now if your soil drains well or you have raised beds. It is important that this root crop has loose soil, so break up any soil clumps. Beets prefer a less acid soil than what is found in most Western Washington gardens, so add about a cup of dolomite lime to each 5-foot row of beets.
You also will want to use a complete fertilizer with micro-nutrients as beets like boron in the soil. A general purpose plant food that you can mix into the soil now at planting time is like insurance on your planting investment.
It is a good thing all parts of the vitamin-packed beet are edible as you will need to thin out the new sprouts so that they are spaced 2 to 3 inches apart. Pull up the crowded young plants when they are a few inches tall and eat them leaves, stems and all steamed or in salads.
As a final tip, plant beet seeds every few weeks until midsummer to enjoy a continuous harvest from your garden. Heed all these beet tips and your new garden will be, dare I say, unbeatable.
Learn from Marianne Binetti
▪ March 7, 10 a.m., Bellevue Nursery, “Stealing Beauty: Garden tips and ideas from around the world,” free, www.cascadewater.org.
▪ March 11, noon, Windmill Gardens, “Lessons from the Binetti Garden,” part one of three-part series. Last class in May is a field trip to the Binetti garden. Sign up at Windmill Gardens, 253-863-5843 or www.windmillgarden.com. Fee is $30 for three classes and field trip.