Month-by-Month Planting & Maintenance


JANUARY | FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL | MAY | JUNE
JULY | AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER | NOVEMBER | DECEMBER

Excerpted from Howard Garrett's Texas Organic Gardening. 1998, Gulf Publishing Company

MARCH:

PLANT WATER
  • Trees and shrubs.
  • Finish cool-season vegetable plantings. Begin warm-season crops after last killing freeze date.
  • Best tomatoes for Texas: Celebrity, Carnival, Spring Giant, Jackpot, Better Boy, Porter, Sweet 100. Plant a mixture of varieties and include some open-pollinated choices.
  • Continue to plant cool-season annuals such as petunias and snapdragons. Begin planting warm-season types after last killing freeze.
  • Annuals and other dry soil areas as needed.
  • Wildflower areas in dry years.

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FERTILIZE PEST CONTROL
  • All planting areas with a 100% organic fertilizer at approximately 20 lbs/1,000 sq ft (if not done in February).
  • Foliar feed all growing plants with Garrett Juice.

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  • Loopers and caterpillars: Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) biological worm spray.
  • Pillbugs, snails, slugs: diatomaceous earth/garlic tea, beer traps, citrus oil products.
  • Aphids: garlic-pepper tea. A blast of water and a release of ladybugs is even better.
  • Black spot, powdery mildew, bacterial leaf spot: Garrett Juice plus garlic.
  • Sycamore anthracnose: Bordeaux mixture as leaves emerge.
  • Fruit tree sprays; garlic-pepper tea and baking soda. Garrett Juice plus garlic and potassium bicarbonate.
  • Fertilizer sprays such as Garrett Juice are all that's needed once healthy soil is established.
PRUNE ODD JOBS:
  • Spring-flowering shrubs and vines only after they finish blooming; flowering quince, spirea, forsythia, weigela, azaleas, camellias, Caroline jessamine, wisteria, climbing roses, etc.
  • Fruit trees before bud break.
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  • Turn the compost pile.
  • Use completed compost for bed preparation. Use partially completed compost as a top-dressing mulch.
  • Mulch all bare soil.
  • Feed the birds!

 

 

 

   
 

Excerpted from Howard Garrett's Texas Organic Gardening. 1998, Gulf Publishing Company

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