Landscaping & Gardening

by Ellen

This year the Heights has enjoyed one of its loveliest springs ever. From the early displays on Magnolia and fruit trees to the recent pinks and purples of Tabebulias and Bauhinias, these lush springtime months have seemed to stretch on longer-than in previous years. Hillsides greened up in February and are still great-looking now.

Now that the rain is almost over, however, it's time to get out of the house and tend to that garden! One thing that can't be ignored is fertilizing. Vast quantities of rain not only wash away hillsides, but also soluble nutrients, especially nitrogen. Throw around some granulated fertilizer high in nitrogen to replenish the soil, concentrating on places that don't normally get fertilizer like ground covers.

For plants that have sickly-looking yellow leaves, sprinkle handfuls of soil sulfur and Ironite. Soil sulfur supposedly "unlocks" bound-up minerals which are already in your soil, and chelated iron adds iron to the soil in a form that can be absorbed by plants.

Specialty plants like camellias, azaleas, fuchsias and roses have their own special fertilizer needs and schedules, so don't include these plants in the high-nitrogen feeding. For these plants it's better to stick to your regular program if you have one. And if you don't, then go ahead and feed them with an all-purpose fertilizer.

Actually it's quite hard to put plants on a "regular program." It's a big job and time-consuming ­ who wants that after a long week at a real job? The only two rules I really try to follow are to fertilize the gardenias at least once a month and to NOT fertilize the azaleas more than twice a year (now is one of the two times, post-bloom). All the other plants ­ roses and camellias to name two ­ seem to do whatever they're going to do regardless of whether I fertilize them or not.

Conventional wisdom says that now (after flowering) is also a good time to trim azaleas. Since my azaleas seem to grow so slowly it's really hard to bring myself to cut off even an inch or two ­ that's all they may have eked out over the past year! But on the few I have forced myself to trim I've had good results. There are supposedly dormant buds hidden under the bark of all those bare and spindly branches. Pruning spurs the development of the buds, yielding a bushier plant and a "thick blanket" of flowers for next year. One of our most prolific azaleas had a near-death experience in an impromptu dog wrestling event that resulted in the truncation of several major limbs. Now it looks fabulous and gets loads of flowers every year!

Azalea tip: we live on a hot, breezy point and only sun azaleas do well. And we don't put them in the sun, but in partial to full shade. The azalea with the best track record and most reliable growth is called Red Bird.