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New York City Gardening Calendar: Spring
Now's the time to emerge from under the pile of seed catalogs that has accumulated over the past two months and get cranked up for the busy growing season ahead.
March
Vegetable gardening
- Start planning cold-weather crops, such as spinach, lettuces, and broccoli, under row covers or in cold frames. Fertilize with fish emulsion.
- Mow down your cover crop and turn it under the last week in March.
Perennials and annuals
- Start seeds indoors for this year's petunias, marigolds, and impatiens or tender perennials.
- Begin to divide and transplant perennials.
Roses
- Remove deadwood and damaged canes; prune on an angle with the dormant bud at the top.
- Spray roses with lime-sulfur.
- Fertilize with an organic fertilizer.
Water gardening
- Remove leaves and debris.
- Check soil in pots.
Trees and shrubs
- Remove deadwood from trees; hold off until April or May if you have to prune radically.
- Fertilize conifers with a top-dressing of manure or a 5-10-5 mixture.
- Trim and fertilize fruit trees before growth starts.
- Prune summer-flowering shrubs. Wait until after bloom to tackle spring-flowering species.
- Plant deciduous and coniferous trees.
Lawns
- Remove winter debris from lawn.
- Make lawnmower repairs.
April
Vegetable gardening
- Start planting cool-season crops like peas, carrots, and radishes.
- Set out transplants of cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli; continue to fertilize.
- Start seed indoors for summer crops.
Perennials and annuals
- Fertilize as growth begins.
- Continue to divide and transplant perennials while weather is still cool.
- Plant cool-season annuals like pansies, sweet peas, and snapdragons.
- Put peony supports in place.
Bulbs
- After flowering, fertilize bulbs that you want to naturalize; dig up bulbs you are treating as annuals.
Roses
- Prepare bare-root roses for planting by pruning damaged growth and shortening healthy canes by a third and trimming the roots by a half.
- Soak plants in muddy water with fish emulsion overnight. Plant as soon as possible. Water and mulch.
- Plant potted roses the same way as bare-root (with the exception of root-trimming); and wait until all chance of frost is gone.
Water gardening
- Divide hardy plants.
- If necessary, change soil in plant containers.
- Plant lotus in late April as long as weather is above freezing.
- Don't feed fish until water temperature is over 60 degrees.
Trees and shrubs
- Continue to prune dead branches.
Lawn
- Seed bare patches.
May
Vegetable gardening
- Wait until May 15 to plant summer crops like tomatoes, corn, peppers, and squash.
Perennials and annuals
- Transplant seedlings started indoors to your garden in mid-May.
- Divide crowded perennials.
- Sow seed for sunflowers and cosmos for summer bloom.
- Pinch back mums.
- Start staking floppy perennials.
- Plant annuals.
Bulbs
- Allow bulb foliage to brown after bloom is finished so nutrients go back into the bulb.
- Plant tender bulbs like dahlias and gladioli.
Roses
- Prune deadwood.
- Water regularly, especially newly planted roses.
- Mulch two to three inches to retain water and protect roots.
- Apply foliar fertilizer twice a month.
Water gardening
- Divide waterlilies.
- Plant hardys after date of last freeze.
- Treat algae bloom with benign neglect -- it will go away on its own once tropicals and hardy plants start leafing out.
Trees and shrubs
- Water newly-planted conifers.
- Weed and mulch.
- There's still time to transplant deciduous trees before the heat of the summer.
- Prune spring-bloomers like forsythia after they flower.
Lawn
- There's still time to seed before the heat of the summer.
- Mow regularly and leave the clippings on the lawn.
