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Timely gardening information!
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Spring Vegetable Gardening
Washington County Cooperative Extension Service
March 2014
Volume 10, Issue 3
To Do’s For March 2
Spring Vegetable Gardening Continued
3
A Note From Dennis 3
Recipe of The Month 4
Horticulture Calendar 4
Wheelbarrow Series Calendar
5
Plant of The Month 6
Inside this issue:
HORTICULTURE
Helping You Grow!
Mid to late March is an ideal time
to plant your cool season or spring
garden. Potatoes, broccoli, cab-
bage, cauliflower, onions, peas,
and many other crops can be
planted this month. Lettuce can
also be planted, however
you will want to cover it
with remay fabric
(tobacco canvas). If you
haven’t started cole crop
(broccoli, cabbage, cauli-
flower etc.) seedlings yet
you should just buy the
plants in a few weeks
from a trustworthy
nursery. This will save
you time and trouble unless you
are growing a great deal of it.
If you haven’t had your soil test-
ed you still have time to get it back
before it is too late for your spring
garden. It generally takes only a
couple of weeks to return.
Vegetables for a spring garden
grow best at relatively cool tem-
peratures (55-65 degrees). These
plants produce their vegetative
growth during springs short cool
days. If they are planted too late,
summer heat will reduce the quan-
tity and quality of your produce.
Cool season crops planted too late
may bolt, become bitter, and have
a poor texture.
Spring vegetables should be
planted as soon as the soil can be
worked in the spring. A light frost
will not harm most cool season
plants after they have become ac-
climated to the garden.
When working the soil in the
spring make sure it is dry enough.
Like Us at
Washington County
Horticulture
March To Do’s
Page 2 Volume 10, Issue 3
Now is a good time to plan
your flower and vegetable
garden layout. Look
through garden catalogs
and landscaping books.
Plan on us-
ing plants
that you
have experi-
ence with
and new va-
rieties, and
always try
to buy
plants that
are disease
resistant.
Check local nurseries for
cultivar availability. Gen-
erally locally grown plants
are better and you get to
look at the plants before
you buy them.
March and April are good
months for planting fruit
crops. When planting
apples choose more than
one variety for pollination
and fruit set. There are
several apples that are good
and disease resistant in
Kentucky, such as Liberty,
Redfree, Enterprise,
Jonafree, and my personal
favorite Pristine. For a
more complete list call me
at the office.
It is also a good time to
plant thornless blackber-
ries (Apache, Arapaho,
Triple Crown), raspberries
(Heritage, Autumn Bliss,
Fallgold, Brandywine,
Royalty)
March
and April
are also
good months
for planting
trees and
shrubs.
Early
March is a
good time to
prune summer-flowering
trees and shrubs such as
clethra, beautyberry,
butterfly bush, golden
raintree, mimosa, and only
the following hydrangeas
(Annabelle, Hills of Snow,
Peegee). Do not prune
other hydrangeas or they
will not bloom this year.
It’s a good idea to start
spraying fruit trees for
diseases as well. Apply
liquid lime-sulfur spray
on peach and plum trees
anytime before the buds
start to swell. This sin-
gle spray will almost
completely control peach
leaf curl and plum pock-
et. Two diseases that
cause premature defolia-
tion each year and can
weaken trees over time.
You can also spray
raspberry and blackberry
with a liquid lime-sulphur
spray to help control
anthracnose. This will not
control it completely,
however it will help and
additional sprays during
the growing season will be
needed.
A dormant spray of copper
sulfate should be applied to
apple and pear trees by the
first of April to improve
control of fireblight. Be
sure to spray the entire
tree. A streptomycin
sulfate spray (if available)
during the growing season
will also help.
Pristine Apple
Spring Vegetable Gardening Continued….
A Note From Dennis
Page 3 Volume 10, Issue 3
If the soil is too wet will be-
come cloddy and hard. This
could change the soil structure
and cause you problems for
several years. If you squeeze
a hand full of soil and it crum-
bles easily when you let go
then the soil is dry enough to
work.
Generally organic mulch is a
very good idea in a garden,
however not in a spring
garden. Mulch will shade the
soil and keep it cool; in the
spring however it is better to
let the sun reach the soil. The
soil will warm faster and your
crops will do better. A black
plastic mulch will help warm
the soil, however it will have
to be removed later in the
spring because it will become
too hot for cool weather plants.
You should plant cool season
plants to-
gether so you
can use the
same place
later. This
will make
working the
soil in the
summer for
your fall gar-
den much easier. Most spring
garden crops can be “double
cropped” in Kentucky, credit
our long growing season and
the fact that we have
relatively mild spring and fall
seasons. If you are going to
plant a spring and fall garden
and are going to “double crop”
be sure not to plant closely
related crops in
the same area.
This will
increase the
chances of
disease and in-
sect carryover
problems.
For more
information on
growing vegetables in
Kentucky stop by the Wash-
ington County Extension Of-
fice and pick up booklet ID-128
Home Vegetable Gardening in
Kentucky.
Any one that knows me knows I dislike cold weather and winter but this year has taken
on a whole new meaning. It is now early March and in two weeks I would on most years be
planting cool season vegetable crops such as potatoes, onions, beets etc. but I don’t think that is
going to happen this year. It is going to take a week of warm dry weather just to dry the soil
out! Spring will happen but it looks to be a bit later this year so we will just have to wait until
then. Tori and Gabby have kind of gotten use to short weeks at school but honestly how much
can the kids learn in a couple days here and there spread out? Hopefully we can get on a
regular school schedule and the kids can learn what they are supposed to before the year ends.
Gabby and Tori both received Kindles at Christmas and Gabby seems to be a bit obsessed
with apps/games and she gets her Kindle out as soon as she gets up and has it until she goes to
bed. We are going to have to limit her when school actually gets back in full swing. She
downloads the kid apps all the time and we don’t mind as long as she asks and they are free.
Last week they were home on a snow day and Amy was with them and Gabby ordered 12 apps
without asking! Little did she knows that I get an email each time she orders one and all of the
apps aren’t free, she spent $9.59. To teach her a lesson we took her Kindle for a day and made
her pay us back out of her money. I actually thought it was funny but she doesn’t know that!
Page 4 Volume 10, Issue 9
Ingredients
4 tablespoons of butter
6 bunches scallions (Green Onions) chopped
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
5 cups vegetable or chicken broth
2 cups of your favorite mushrooms, sliced
1/3 cup heavy cream (for a lighter version use fat free half
and half)
Directions
1. In a heavy-bottomed soup pot, melt the butter and add
the chopped green onions (reserve a tablespoon full to sprinkle on top of individual bowls of fin-
ished soup), along with salt and pepper to taste. Sauté for a few minutes, until the onions are
softened, then add broth and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, add 1 cup of the mush-
rooms and cover, allow to simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Puree in a food processor or blender until smooth, then put the soup back in the pot, add the
cream and the remaining mushrooms, and heat gently (do not boil) until the mushrooms are
tender.
3. Serve warm. Serves 4. Add cheesy croutons or a side of crusty French bread to make it a
meal.
March 11th 10:30 AM and
March 13th 6:30
PM The
Wheelbarrow
Series Class is on
Growing Root
Vegetables in
Kentucky
March 12th at
6:00 PM The
Washington County Garden
will meet at the Extension
Office (we will plan this years
meetings so please attend)
March 13th 7:30 PM
immediately following
the Wheelbarrow
Series Class we are
having a formation
meeting for the
Washington County
Master Gardener
Association. Any
Master Gardener that
completed the program
through the Washington Coun-
ty Extension Office is encour-
aged to attend.
March 18th at 10:30 AM and
March 20th at 6:30 PM the
Wheelbarrow Series Class is
on Growing Medlar and Rose
Hips in Kentucky
March 25th at 10:30 AM and
March 27th at 6:30 PM the
Wheelbarrow Series Class is
on Growing Josta Berry and
Goji Berry in Kentucky.
March 25th 3:30 PM The 4H
Seed Sprouters meet at the
Extension Office
Recipe of The Month-Green Onion and Mushroom Soup
March Horticulture Calendar
Page 5 Volume 10, Issue 9
Feb 11 Tues FREE! Starting Seeds At Home
13 Thurs FREE! Starting Seeds At Home
Mar 11 Tues FREE! Growing Root Vegetables In KY
13 Thurs FREE! Growing Root Vegetables In KY
Mar 18 Tues $25.00 Lesser Known Fruit Series-Medlar and Rose Hips
20 Thurs $25.00 Lesser Known Fruit Series-Medlar and Rose Hips
Mar 25 Tues $20.00 Lesser Known Fruit Series-Josta and Goji Berry
27 Thurs $20.00 Lesser Known Fruit Series-Josta and Goji Berry
April 8 Tues FREE! Herb Gardening For Culinary Use
10 Thurs FREE! Herb Gardening For Culinary Use
April 22 Tues FREE! The Other Pollinators
24 Thurs FREE! The Other Pollinators
April 29 Tues $25.00 The Exceptional World of Dahlia’s
May 1 Thurs $25.00 The Exceptional World of Dahlia’s
May 13 Tues FREE! Growing Vining Vegetables In Kentucky
15 Thurs FREE! Growing Vining Vegetables In Kentucky
May 20 Tues $20.00 Begonias!
22 Thurs $20.00 Begonias!
June 10 Tues $20.00 The Great Hellebores
12 Thurs $20.00 The Great Hellebores
June 24 Tues $10.00 Make and Take Hypertufa Planters
26 Thurs $10.00 Make and Take Hypertufa Planters
Aug 5 Tues $10.00 Cole Crops For Fall and Winter Harvest
7 Thurs $10.00 Cole Crops For Fall and Winter Harvest
Aug 19 Tues FREE! Fall Cover and Green Manure Crops
21 Thurs FREE! Fall Cover and Green Manure Crops
Sept 16 Tues FREE! Long Blooming Perennials
18 Thurs FREE! Long Blooming Perennials
Sept 30 Tues $20.00 Alternative Hardy Spring Flowering Bulbs
Oct 2 Thurs $20.00 Alternative Hardy Spring Flowering Bulbs
Oct 14 Tues FREE! Trees for Food and Wildlife Habitat
Oct 16 Thurs FREE! Trees for Food and Wildlife Habitat
Nov 18 Tues FREE! Healthy Hollies for Kentucky Landscapes
20 Thurs FREE! Healthy Hollies for Kentucky Landscapes
Dec 2 Tues $25.00 Creating The Ultimate Holiday Centerpieces
4 Thurs $25.00 Creating The Ultimate Holiday Centerpieces
$5.00 x Basic Registration For Any and All Classes
Total From Above
Minus 10% If Paid In Full By February 15th.
Total
Wheelbarrow Series Registration-Classes Meet Tuesdays at 10:30 AM
and Thursdays at 6:30 PM For More Information Call 859-336-7741
211 Progress Road
Springfield KY, 40069
Office 859-336-7741
Fax 859-336-7445
Email [email protected]
February Plant of The Month - Chinodoxa luciliae
Washington County Cooperative Extension Service
We Are On The Web!!!
washington.ca.uky.edu
Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Washington-
County-Horticulture/140659449317295
Commonly called
Glory of the Snow
Culture
Easily grown in average, medium, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade. Plant bulbs 3”
deep and 2” apart in fall. Naturalizes easily by bulb offsets and self seeding to form a carpet of
early spring bloom. Foliage begins to fade shortly after bloom and generally disappears by late
spring as plants go into dormancy.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Glory-of-the-snow is so named because it is among the first bulbs to bloom in the spring. Each
bulb produces 2-3 narrow, basal leaves and a flower stalk to 6” tall which is topped in very early
spring by 3-6 star-like, upward facing, six-petaled, soft violet-blue flowers with white centers.
Garden Uses
Provides late winter to early spring color to the garden. Best when massed and naturalized in
rock gardens, sunny woodland areas or in lawns under large deciduous trees. Mixes well with
other early spring bulbs such as daffodils, species tulips and snowdrops.
Information from:
http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?
kempercode=q570
