New Local Gardening Column: Home Grown Notions

We'd like to welcome our newest sponsor to The Edmonson Voice, Mammoth Cave Transplants, located at 5394 Brownsville Road (KY 259), owned by Mrs. Janet Dennison. The nursery offers a variety of bedding plants, hanging baskets, trees and shrubs, produce plants, potting soil, and much more. You can stay updated on their specials by visiting their Facebook Page here. They are now contributing a regular column, "Home Grown Notions," which will focus on all types of gardening tips and info. You can also click on their ad on our News page. Please welcome Mammoth Cave Transplants by enjoying the column in which you can read below!

Homegrown Notions  - Spring into Spring: 5 tips to Jump-start Your Season

Spring is here, and warm weather is beginning to peek around the corner. There are lots to be done in preparation for the new growing season! There are some early spring cleanup tasks and plant maintenance that are sure things for this time of year. Use these tips and pay a visit to your garden, do some much needed maintenance, and tend to what’s already there.

Spring Tip #1: Prune those roses!

Roses need to be pruned now before they start to leaf out.

Spring Tip #2: Cut back Ornamental Grasses

Now is also the time to cut back ornamental grasses to 2–3 inches to allow new growth. If new growth has already started cut back to where the new growth has begun.

Spring Tip #3: Apply Dormant Oil Spray

Apply dormant oil spray to fruit trees, magnolias, crabapples and shrubs such as euonymus to control scale insects and other overwintering pests. Use this organic pest control method when the buds are swelling but the leaves haven't opened yet. Apply when temperatures are between 40 and 70 degrees F.

Spring Tip #4: Re-seed and Repair your lawn.

Re-seed and repair bare and damaged patches in your lawn.

Spring Tip #5: Plan and dream! Take all that time you spent this winter flipping through gardening magazines and spend the first days of spring in your yard making plans for the coming year. Enjoy the sunshine and fresh air and savor in the excitement that only spring can bring.

While we are all chomping at the bit to get our hands dirty and to start the planting season, it is still too early here in Kentucky to plant many of our beloved flowers and vegetables. We need to wait until the chance for frost is gone. March is notoriously unpredictable. There may still be chilly nights to come, so don’t get ahead of yourself. Plants that can handle the cooler temps like Pansies, Viola’s, Dianthus, and Snapdragons can be planted now to give you some color and curb appeal. Cole crop vegetables such as Cabbage, Onions, Broccoli, Cauliflower, and potatoes can been planted now as well as sowing lettuce seeds and other greens. Happy Gardening from Mammoth Cave Transplants! Give us a call, 270-597-2533.

To grow a garden, is to believe in tomorrow  ~Audrey Hepburn