THE MARCH GARDENER
by
Mary Margaret Burges
Texas Certified Nursery Professional

           The freezes of the first two weeks of February have probably done more damage to plants than we are used to having happen. Not only was it colder than most years, but it lasted longer. We usually have cold that dips down and then bounces right back, not lasting long enough to do much damage. Things to look for, especially shrubs and most especially pittosporum, are splits up and down the limps, not across. If you find that, cut back below the end of the split. The plant should come back ok; you just do not want it sending energy up to a part of the plant that will almost certainly die anyway. Let that energy go to putting out good growth. The cold should get rid of a lot of pesky bugs; the trouble is it will also get some of the bugs that are our friends. To my disgust there are three stink bugs just outside, on the wall that the cold is not bothering, sadly the thermometer says it is still in the 20s at 4:30 in the afternoon. Lady bugs have the ability to find a warm place to hide and should reproduce since we had as many as we had last year. Let’s hope some of the little green lizards and frogs survived; they also are good friends.

            The prices at the grocery store are going up every day, as are the prices on everything else – including water. A reasonable sized garden can help with water saving steps – a good idea. It is a healthy activity and a way to be sure your vegetables have not had harmful chemicals applied. A few bug holes in your vegetables will not hurt you, and beautiful chemically grown plants can hurt you.

            Soften the soil the best you can. Spraying the soil with Medina or Medina Plus is a good investment. Keep a layer of compost covered with mulch. As the compost and mulch disintegrate they feed the soil, making the organic fertilizer go farther. You can use less and less organic fertilizer each year. Chemical fertilizers extract nutrients from the soil, removing important things that the plants need. More chemical fertilizers are needed because of that extraction, and the soil gets harder each growing season.

            Besides, chemical fertilizers can run off into the streams and rivers, causing them to be an ugly green color. Organics stay in place. I would love to see the farmers using organics and bring the Medina back to that crystal clear river I remember. I’ll bet other areas would follow.

            Back to gardening. Plant the things that are good for you, and that you like, including a large variety of color in the vegetables. Each year new and better varities are found. Information from one of the better growers:

            Try the (2011 Rodeo): Tomato Tycoon. Offers a large firm fruit, oblate tomato with high yield. Determinate. Mid-early, heat stability. High tolerance to yellow leaf curl virus. Also offers tolerance to vertiicillium, fusarium race 1 and 2, nematodes, and tomato spotted leaf virus. Better cracking tolerance during the heat. Offers fruit that ripens well and is a medium sized plant. It’s very disease resistant.

Most people liked the Phoenix tomato last year. Celebrity is nearly always a winner. Sweet 100 and large cherry are indeterminate, so keep on producing.