Plan tasks in garden for 2007

By NANCY BRACHEY MCT News Service JANUARY

January 06, 2007 Last Updated: January 07, 2007 11:58 AM Special Sections

Prepare a small plot for early vegetables you'll plant later this winter.

Enhance landscape with a shrub that has wonderful scent in winter. These include winter daphne, wintersweet and winter honeysuckle.

Check autumn-planted perennials after stretches of very cold weather. The plants may be dislodged by freezing and thawing of soil. Reset if necessary.

Fertilize daffodils as tips emerge from the ground with 3 pounds of 10-10-10 per 100 square feet of bulb bed.

Dig up wild onions and wild garlic as they emerge.

TIP OF THE MONTH: Take your mower to the shop for a tune-up before the rush begins.

Fertilize pansies and fescue lawns.Plant peonies, making sure the top of the crown (where buds emerge), is at or just above the soil line.Trim weather-beaten old leaves of Lenten roses as new growth emerges.Mow monkey grass with blade at highest setting. If liriope is too tall and thick to mow, use shears or string trimmer to cut off old foliage.TIP OF THE MONTH: Good recordkeeping makes for good gardening. It doesn't have to be fancy. A pocket-sized notebook is all you need to write down names of varieties you own, planting times and notes on results.

Set out broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower plants and sow seeds of cool-weather peas such as Sugar Snaps.Prune hybrid tea, grandiflora and floribunda roses.Fertilize perennial beds; add new plants.Plant new ground covers where grass is difficult or impossible to grow.Seed bare spots in lawn. Fertilize fescue lawns by mid-March. Apply pre-emergent crabgrass prevention by March 20.TIP OF THE MONTH: Have some cardboard boxes, old milk jugs or lightweight cloths handy to cover young plants should weather threaten to get really icy this spring.

Sow seeds of green beans, melons, corn, cucumbers and squash, beginning in mid-month.Set out tomato and pepper plants in mid- to late-April.Look out for slugs headed toward your leaf lettuce, pansies and other tender plants. Catch them in traps or pans of beer.Buy mandevillas, hibiscus and other tropicals to plant in big pots outdoors.Plant warm-weather ornamentals that grow from bulbs or tubers — including gladiolus, canna and dahlia — in late April.TIP OF THE MONTH: Avoid blossom-end rot on tomatoes by mixing in a handful of lime to planting hole of each plant.

Mulch vegetable garden, now that soil is warm.Plant okra and lima bean seeds, and keep setting out young vegetable plants.Fertilize rhododendrons with an acid fertilizer as blooms fade. Prune spent flowers.Sow seeds of annuals such as zinnias and cleome.Deadhead spent blooms from annuals and perennials to make them bloom longer.Fill balcony pots with pentas, geraniums, heliotrope, lantana and begonias.TIP OF THE MONTH: Short lightweight branches make good supports for perennials as they grow. Insert them around plants before they get a foot tall.

Harvest vegetables at their peak.Pick off spent blooms of daylilies.Rake away yellowed or brown daffodil foliage.Replace pansies with fresh bedding plants for summer.Prune and shape climbing and shrub roses after they finish blooming.TIP OF THE MONTH: Set Japanese beetle traps, if you must use them, as far as possible from targeted plants such as roses, grape vines or crape myrtles.

Keep tomato plants evenly watered to avoid cracking fruits and blossom-end rot.Cut off and replant runners of strawberry plants.Prune shrubs such as mop-head hydrangeas and gardenias as early-summer blooms fade.Give flower beds a midsummer dose of fertilizer.Tend to roses. Keep them well-groomed, sprayed and watered to encourage fresh growth.TIP OF THE MONTH: Pinch leggy shoots of begonias, coleus and geraniums to create more shapely plants and give them a lift through autumn.

Begin planting fall vegetable crops, including lettuce, spinach, turnips, beets, radishes, broccoli and collards.Sow such hardy flowers as English daisies, coneflowers, wallflowers and forget-me-nots in pots or trays. Protect seedlings from harsh sunlight.Remove nests of webworms in trees with a long stick in the evening. This will remove some caterpillars and expose others to predators.TIP OF THE MONTH: Start thinking about changes you'd like to make in your landscape this fall, including new decks, patios, walks and flower beds.

Look out for insects such as cutworms and other caterpillars that go after cabbage, cauliflower and other fall crops.Sow lettuce, spinach and other leafy greens.Give flower beds, including roses, a late-summer grooming in preparation for fall.Remove annuals that are bloomed out.TIP OF THE MONTH: You don't have to complete lawn renewal in just one weekend. Divide the work into three:One for preparation, including raking, buying materials and applying lime. One for core aeration. And the last for seeding and fertilizing.

Clear out vegetable crops that have finished producing.Plant pansies, snapdragons, ornamental cabbage, kale and hardy perennials.Dig, divide and replant crowded clumps of daylilies, Shasta daisies and other perennials that bloom in spring and early summer.Bring tropicals indoors to a sunny window once night temperatures drop below 50.Rake new grass gently to remove fallen leaves.Start a compost bin with this fall's crop of leaves.TIP OF THE MONTH: Plan to create a dual floral effect for containers by planting bulbs first, then topping with pansies.

Plant flower bulbs — tulips, daffodils, crocuses and hyacinths — by the end of the month.Set out new trees and shrubs.Sow poppies, larkspur and other hardy wildflowers in flower beds for bloom next spring and summer.Cut back flower stems and spent foliage of chrysanthemums and other perennials to the base.TIP OF THE MONTH: When planting shade trees, remember that a location to block summer afternoon sun has the greatest cooling effect.Fertilize fescue grass again around Thanksgiving.

Hoe up emerging chickweed, that bright green cool-weather weed that sprouts in cool weather and runs rampant by spring.Give your potted amaryllis a quarter turn each week to keep the stem growing straight.Finish planting any spring bulbs in pots you can leave outdoors for the winter.Cut back hybrid tea and grandiflora roses to 4 feet in early December.Keep wet leaves off your grass. Matted, wet leaves will kill those precious blades this winter.TIP OF THE MONTH: Use cuttings of nandina, holly, boxwoods, laurels and other broadleaf evergreens in wreaths and floral arrangements.Nancy Brachey is garden editor for The Charlotte Observer. Contact here by writing to 600 S. Tryon St, P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, NC 28230.