Get started with seeds, apply horticultural oil and lime sulphur…

A great month for seed starting! Use a good quality lightweight seed starting soil for your plants. Grow lights are a great supplement to natural light so your seedlings don’t get leggy stretching for the light. Use dome covers on your flats for humidity. When the seedlings emerge, prop up or tent the covers to provide good airflow. A sprinkling of milled spaghnum moss over the top will help discourage damping off.

• Move “sleeping” tropicals and geraniums overwintered in the basement to a sunny window. Begin gradually watering with a diluted water-soluble fertilizer.
• Use a combination horticultural oil and lime sulfur spray on dormant deciduous plants on a day where temperatures are 40 degrees or better. The oil spray is for overwintering insects and the lime sulfur is for overwintering disease problems.
• Look for mole damage in the lawn. Remember moles do not hibernate and consume 80% to 100% of their body weight each day in insects! Set traps, use baits and consider pelletized castor oil in combination to deal with lawn infestations. Moles are very active and most social in late winter and early spring. Breeding of new litters takes place and as their food source insects work their way up in the soil, damage becomes more evident.
• Service your lawn mower before the season starts. A good clean sharp blade is important in maintaining a nice looking healthy lawn.
• Don’t take off protection for Macrophylla hydrangeas too soon. These zone 6 plants can swell with early warm weather only to have buds produced on the previous season’s growth freeze in a cold snap. If that happens, you’ll be left with a lot of green growth in season but no or few flowers.
• A good month to pick out summer flowering “bulbs” while the selection is great and start them indoors. Summer flowering “bulbs” like Cannas and Dahlias are great for container gardens but don’t plant them outside until mid-May when the danger of frost is past.