Fertilizing and Pruning Southern and Other Gardens and Trees

[Guest guest]

Howdy Gayla, Anya, Chris .. other good folks ..

 

You can, however, start throwing coffee grounds and veggie scraps around

> the base of the tree. Put your veggie scraps into the blender, grind them

> fine,

> then pour at the root line of the trees. All this will draw the worms which

> will give the tree the best growth you have seen.

> Gayla Roberts

>

 

I don't disagree with what you or Anya wrote .. but it differs Zone to Zone

so folks should do what is right for their zone and not take these messages

as being necessarily applicable in their case. What you both wrote will

well for Chris because she is in Texas .. but for folks like me (Tennessee)

and lots of others dumping compost now will not bring up worms because the

ground will still freeze hard quite a few more times between now and the

middle or even the last of March. Worms are still hibernating in our

area. If folks in our area want to dump compost now then they should cover

it with soil .. don't leave it out to dry up or be eaten by critters.

 

On fertilizing and pruning trees .. again, its a Zone thing ... in my area

this is the PERFECT time to prune ALL trees .. and the perfect time to

fertilize Fruit trees. They are still dormant and will not attempt to

replace their lost limbs any time soon. I am pruning now and I fertilized

my fruit trees last week. In early March I will fertilize some of my other

young trees.

 

Trees that have spent at least three seasons in the ground are going to bud

and bloom when the time is right .. and unless there is a bad frost when

they bloom they will do well. Even if you do have a bad frost you can

do much to save the blooms by getting out there and spraying the tree with a

hose .. water will knock the ice crystals off and you will save a lot of

blooms. This happened to me last April.

 

Those young trees that are new to an area can bud or bloom anytime you have

2 or 3 nice days in a row .. they are like children .. they haven't yet

learned how they are supposed to act in their new environment. My Red

Delicious trees .. from the Northeast .. and Peach trees .. from Georgia ..

both planted last Spring .. budded and bloomed this Winter. Of course, the

cold got those blooms but it is not going to harm them .. they will come out

again in Spring. I have two kinds of Jasmine blooming now but those blooms

are gonna get kicked in the butt before too long .. and they will come

back.

 

We will be dumping a couple of tons of compost on our garden in late March

... the only reason we have waited is because it is still composting in my

pit .. we could have placed it out any time in those areas I intend to

plow. For areas where I intend to do no till planting I wait till late

March or so .. in our zone.

 

Yesterday, Tanya and Alexander were walking around in the garden and found

something that surprised them .. lots of little green onions, lettuce and

arugula .. she picked a good bit of it and we had a real fresh salad last

night .. along with fried green tomatoes and fried eggplant smothered in

yogurt with lots of garlic .. the maters and eggplant were from the

freezer. Will those three plants continue to grow? Probably .. unless we

get a night of 20 F or so that lasts for 6-8 hours. She also found a lot of

garlic sprouting .. we planted that garlic in December and covered it with

straw .. but we did not plant the lettuce, green onions and arugula .. they

are all volunteer from last year.

 

Truth is .. it is NOT easy to kill a healthy plant. Plants do all they can

to survive. Many plants can handle burning or hard freezing and still come

back .. its disease and lack of water that kills plants .. and trees.

Folks who don't water their trees when water is scarce will lose a lotta

trees .. and those that have healthy trees can be sure they have not been

hit by some form of disease. Losing a tree (especially a fruit tree) is a

bad thing .. to me its like losing a dog or a cat .. so we gotta watch them

well and if we see something amiss we gotta figure out what it is and fix

it.

 

Y'all have a good one .. and keep smiling. :-)

 

Butch .. http://www.AV-AT.com <http://www.av-at.com/>

 

PS: Most folks don't drink enough coffee to really have the grounds to

spread around a lot of trees .. but I do. ;-) We save ours and dump it

every two weeks or so around our Blueberries and Azaleas .. both like coffee

grounds cause both like acidic soil. If we want to talk extremes .. I'll

say that rather than have a garden fertilizer dumped on them .. those two

plants would prefer vinegar .. I am serious.

 

 

 

> -

> " Perfumes " <anya<anya%40anyasgarden.com>

> >

> < <%40>>

> Monday, February 16, 2009 9:18 AM

> Re: A Question for the Southern Gardeners

>

> >

> > No, don't fertilize or prune or otherwise disturb any plants at this

> > time. Both fertilizing and pruning will encourage young, fresh growth in

> > the next few weeks, and you could still have a frost or freeze,

>