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Crazy Unpredictable Texas Weather

Think it will freeze again before Easter? Of course it will. You know that Easter isn’t until April 4th and we always have a "cold snap" right before or on Easter morning. Didn’t it thunder in February? Have the Mesquite leafed out? No! The latest freeze on record for most of the Hill Country is April 15th (that’s appropriate, right). We did not expect 3-4 inches of snow last week either but we received that here at Oatmeal. Wow! We had a real "snow day", and enjoyed the time to play, read a good book, visited with old friends, and sat in front of a roaring fire all day. It was awesome. So we are a long way till we start planting our Spring gardens without protection. It is time to be planting seeds in the greenhouse and time is running out to get the jump on the season.

Duties for March

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Do not fertilize your lawns yet. If you do it now you will be feeding the very things you don’t want, namely the weeds. Grasses don’t really start to grow until it is warmer. We need temperatures in the 70’s in the mornings and 80’s in the afternoons to promote good healthy grasses. A better time to fertilize on the calendar, but watch the temperatures, is mid April. This is an excellent time to aerate your lawns particularly since we have had such wonderful rains.

Wildflowers are going to be outstanding. If you want to know where they are the best, log onto www.dot.state.tx.us they will tell you where the best area for viewing are. If you would rather call, then 1-800-452-9292 is the source to call. Each year TxDOT spreads over 33,000 pounds of wildflower seeds over the highways and byways. Each pound contains some 170,000 seeds and some 30 different varieties of species.

Time to foliar feed your Roses with Hastogro. It is planting time for all hot weather herbs and perennial herbs, such as basil, catnip, chives, lemon grass, mints, oregano, rosemary, and thyme later this month.

Plant a new Strawberry bed or restore the existing bed by adding compost and other soil amendments

We can begin to plant Asparagus, Corn, Cucumber, Eggplant, Peppers, Pumpkin, Squash, and Watermelon just to name a few toward the end of the month. This is a good time to attack the weeds. My favorite product is the Natural Weed Killer by Gardenville. If you have any Poison Ivy and it is budding then attack it with this product immediately. It may take several applications, but it will take out the Poison Ivy. Warning: This product will knock out whatever you put it on so please pay particular attention to where you are spraying.

Have you Pruned Your Fruit trees yet?

It is time to prune fruit trees. If you have the early blooming trees which most folks have at least a few of, as I do, they are already blooming. Leave them alone for this year. All of the rest it is time to take care of business. Start with removing the dead limbs first, then stand back and visualize an upside-down umbrella and use that visual to prune the rest of the tree. Remember: the 18-24 inch limbs that are red cane in appearance are the ones that will produce fruit for you this year. The best pruning should remove 40 percent of the old limbs. All of this is better explained in my book (Gardening in the Texas Hill Country) on page108. If you would like to buy a copy of my book check with local feed stores and nurseries. If they don’t carry it, send $10.00 plus $2.00 shipping to the address below and I will send it to you.

The 12th Hill Country Lawn and Garden Show

Oh boy, oh boy, this year’s show is going to be even better than before. The show will be at the usual place; The Burnet Community Center, just two blocks east of the square in Burnet and two blocks south of Hwy 29 on Saturday March 27th, from 9am till 4pm. The admission is free for adults and children alike. There will be speakers during the show (free admission) and demonstrations throughout the day. There will be vendors of all kinds of garden supplies and products. It is one of the best and one of the few that is devoted to just gardening. You don’t want to miss this.

For questions or more information please go to http//:yantislakesidegardens.com

Till Next Month!

Keep your souls and your soles in your garden! Remember the True Master Gardener: Jesus said, "I am the vine; my Father is the Gardener." John 15:1

Have questions or comments? Contact Bill Luedecke at The Luedecke Group Realtors, P.O. Box 1632, Bertram, TX. 78605 (no Post Office in Oatmeal) or email bill@texasland.net. For additional gardening web sites, go to his web site; www.TexasLand.Net and click on links.