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Posted by The GreenView Team at 3:37:16 PM | 0 Comment(s)

Ah ... May.

It's the month gardeners in many U.S. climate zones dream about. We peek out our windows each morning, hoping to see dew instead of frost on our lawns and tender tulip petals. We revel in the brilliant color of forsythia and inhale deeply to enjoy the tantilizing scent of hyacinth. We clean and fill our birdfeeders and recover the bird bath from shed or garage. And while sipping our morning java, we reach for pencil and pad to plan the gardening tasks needed to make ours the best looking landscape in the neighborhood!

At first it can seem overwhelming, but fret not. We've got tips and a handy checklist.

Ready, Set, Go...

Ready: Think strategically. Before you clip one branch or pull one weed, gather your gardening tools from wherever you stored them over the winter months. If you get your ducks in a row first, you’ll save yourself a great deal of time and frustration as you move from task to task, avoiding the delay caused by “where’s my shovel, where’s my spade?”

Replace, clean, sharpen and repair your garden tools before you start to work, then place them in areas of the yard where you’ll need them most.

Set: Set up your work areas to reduce the walking and dragging back and forth to retrieve gardening materials and plants. Too much of that will have you huffing and puffing unnecessarily; it’s better to save your strength for the serious work. Connected your hose or fill your watering can. Place Preen, mulch, soil and fertilizer near your work area.

Go: Prune, plant, weed, treat, and fertilize.

• Prune and trim. Before the planting begins, tidy things up a bit with pruning and trimming. Prune early spring-flowering trees and shrubs. The more blooms you remove now, the more flowers you will see next year!
• Plant. Wait until frost season is past before you plant those delicate annuals and perennials or bulbs, such as cannas, gladiolus, dahlias, tuberous begonias and caladiums. Make sure you harden off new annual plants before planting them outside. (“Hardening off” is a method for transitioning plants grown indoors or in a greenhouse by gradually exposing the tender plants to wind, sun and rain to toughen them up. This helps prevent transplant shock.) Don’t forget to mulch to minimize weed germination and moderate soil temperature.
• Protect and defend. Remove any garden pests you see by hand or with earth-friendly treatments. Overseed where your lawn is thin or dead patches appear and treat your lawn now to enjoy the lush green expanse of turfgrass all summer long. To prevent crabgrass and broadleaf weeds from invading your turf, choose a product like Greenway Fairway Formula Broadleaf Weed Control plus Lawn Food or Greenview Fairway Formula Spring Fertilizer Weed & Feed with Crabgrass Preventer 24-2-8.
  
  Protect your lilies and tulips from deer, rabbits or other pesky animals that would love to devour the buds just before they bloom. There are many organic repellents on the market today or try a mixture of eggs, garlic and hot sauce diluted in water. It works pretty well as long as you spray the plants after every rain.
• Weed and Feed. In your perennial garden, weed gingerly now, taking special care not to disturb the roots of perennials that surely don’t deserve the punishment! Beware…the weeds will wrap around them and become more enmeshed later on, so the more weeds you can remove now, the better. I’ve read that hot vinegar and water is a solution that will kill the roots of stubborn garden weeds.
• For your lawn: Mow your lawn at 2 to 2-1/2 inches, removing one-third or less of the leaf blade. Leaf clippings return nutrients to the soil, so leave them, or if they are thick and wet, add them to your compost heap. If you are applying grass seed, don’t use a pre-emergent weed killer in the same area.
  
  Fertilize your lawn by mid-May with GreenView Fairway Formula Lawn Fertilizers. There’s a formula for every purpose and our spring fertilizer feeds your lawn for the entire spring season—up to 16 weeks! Use a preventative formula for weeds or keep an eye out for them and hand pull or spot treat accordingly.

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