I took a walk around my garden yesterday and would like to share some things I noticed.

First I saw the some signs that snails are active so I started my first snail baiting of the season. I saw tracks and some holes on my daffodil blooms.  If you have pet concerns use Monterey Sluggo. This is both pet safe and certified for organic gardens. 

I also noted a few of my perennials starting to come back but were showing signs they needed to be fertilized. I took care of that  by feeding them a dose of Formula 49. 

I saw healthy new growth on all my roses, including a few I planted this fall.  I had already fertilized these when I planted or pruned them.  I am already on the lookout for the first signs of aphid invasion.  At home I control them with a combination of simply washing them off,  and for season-long control I put out Lady bugs and encarsia wasp.  When spring weather comes each year the nursery sells both the lady bugs and the encarsia wasp.  A note about the wasps -  when I tell people about them they are expecting to see something the size of a bumble bee or yellow jacket wasp. Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Encarsia wasps are about the size of the smallest piece of ground pepper. Yes, ground pepper!  If you see swollen aphis mixed in with normal sized aphid what you are seeing is the result of having active wasps cleaning out the aphid.  All you need to do is wait a week or so and usually the aphid are either gone or almost gone. 

My Iceland poppies are in good bloom and my pansies are starting to show lots of color. I have some semi-dwarf snaps that are just starting to show buds. My daffodils are either showing color, or in the case of some l just planted, the bulbs are just coming up. I have some foxglove that will be starting to show buds soon, and my delphinium are just getting to the size of good snail food.  More Sluggo here please!

My Iceland Poppies  

I have a oriental magnolia tulip tree that is in full bloom now, and there are a couple of Bradford pears at the  street that are just coming into bloom.  Walking under them I'm reminded of one of the reasons Bradford pear have become less popular, at least at Scenic Nursery.The ground under the tree looks like I seeded a Dichondra lawn - there are  thousands of pear trees germinating! 

This is my Magnolia Alexandrena 2 years old in the ground 

Other than the pear, there are very few weeds. My challenge is to keep them from forming seed. If I can do that the possibilities of weed invasion drop dramatically. In fact I would say that is the very best thing you can do. I use a thick mulch of humus, 2" or more, as my first step. Then I keep any weeds out; this stops new weed seeds from getting deposited over the humus to sprout later. These are all organic gardening approved methods. If I get behind or the weeds get too bad I will use pre-emergents.

This is one of the nicest times to be out in the garden with the renewal and rebirth that comes with spring.  

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