by Brenda Beust Smith
The Lazy Gardener

This month, you really should . . .

• Put tomatoes in the ground early this month.
• Mow the lawn when it needs it, then feed.
• Watch out for bluebonnets. They look like clover. Don't mow them down.
• Fertilize everything. Water first, feed, then water again.
• Gradually move hibiscus and other container plants into more light.
• Remove flowers on newly-purchased plants so they will set stronger root systems.
• Unwrap banana trunks and keep well watered. Want bananas? Remove baby plants.
• Plant Louisiana phlox around late-appearing shrubs like hamelia, lantana, dishplate hibiscus, etc. This perennial groundcover is green in winter, blooms in spring and goes dormant (almost disappears) in summer.
• Give hibiscus a slight haircut, then feed with hibiscus food to encourage lush growth.
• Attend area programs to learn about new-to-us hardy, low-maintenance flowers.

If the spirit moves . . .

• Continue pinching perennial tips to make them bushier. Stop when they produce buds.
• Dig up, thin out and transplant perennials so crowded they no longer bloom properly.
• Feed azaleas, spirea, climbing roses and other shrubby spring bloomers after they bloom.
• Remove spent flowers on spring bloomers to promote more bloom production.
• Work 1/2 cup of Epsom salts around roses, hibiscus and other bloomers for more flowers.
• Remove fading daffodil blooms so they won't go to seed. Leave fading foliage on.
• Feed plumerias with fish emulsion and superphosphate.
• Plant bell peppers, cucumbers, green beans, pumpkins, squash, tomatoes and watermelon - but cover if a late freeze is forecast. Start eggplants in pots.
• Put bluebonnet plants in raised, containers and/or hanging baskets. (Sow seed in fall.)
• In the water garden, remove leaves and muck from pond bottom if not done last fall. Remove toad eggs if you see them.

If you're really feeling energetic . . .

• Landscape with a wide variety of plants, instead of large masses of all the same kind. Masses of the same variety attract insects and disease.
• Donate excess plants to school, nursing home or community garden.
• Check grocery stores for white-flowering oxalis (clover) around St. Patrick's Day. It should be perennial in shady areas. Goes dormant in summer; reappears in winter.
• Plant antique roses, four o'clocks, gingers, jasmines and mock oranges for fragrance.
• Prune poinsettias; keep spent blooms picked off mums. Mums bloom spring and fall.
• Make a note of beautiful spring bulbs (tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, ranunculus, anemones, etc.) now in bloom. Fall is the time to purchase and plant most of them.
• Remove tulip bulbs after the flowers fade. Discard; they won't bloom again.
• Watch tree trunks for webworm eggs in limb crotches on susceptible trees. Remove!
• Try crushed egg shells, coarse sand in ring around plant stem to discourage snails.
• Give all the plants a manure tea treat: Mix in washtub: 1/2 rotted (or bagged) manure and 1/2 water (preferably rainwater). Let it sit overnight. Drain off water and pour over plants. This tea is high in nitrogen, so don't use more than once a month on blooming plants.

Great Don't-Do tips for really Lazy Gardeners

• Don't prune off freeze-damaged limbs or remove what looks like freeze-killed plants just yet. Wait until April. They may come back out.
• Don't prune crape myrtles unless they are causing damage, have grown out of bounds or have dead limbs. (See page 6.)
• Don't cut foliage off bulbs that naturalize after they finish blooming. They use the fading foliage to set next year's blooms.
• Don't plant caladiums yet. It's still too cold.
• Don't put out any tender tropicals, like plumerias. We may have a late freeze.