- Pests and Problems: Consider taking soil samples to determine fertilizer needs.
- Plant seeds of cool season vegetables (peas, lettuce, radishes…) as soon as garden soil is workable.
- Consider planting peas in the garden every 2-3 weeks (until early May) to extend the harvest.
- If it didn’t happen in the fall, add organic matter to the vegetable garden to help build and amend the soil.
- Avoid compacted soil by avoiding tilling wet or saturated garden soil.
- Consider backyard composting or vermiculture (composting with worms).
- If storing bulbs, check the bulb’s condition to ensure they are firm, removing any soft or rotten bulbs.
- If locally available, plant bare root trees and shrubs, keeping the exposed roots moist until planted.
- Remove protective trunk wrap and burlap from trees in the spring after snow has melted.
- Fertilize spring flowering bulbs such as tulips, daffodil, fritillaria and crocus.
- Plant cold hardy pansies and primrose.
- Click here to subscribe to the Utah Pests IPM Advisories for timely tips on controlling pests in your yard and garden.
- Prune berries and fruit trees such as apples, pears, peaches, cherries, plums and apricots.
- Attend a USU Extension sponsored pruning demonstration near you.
- Apply Horticulture oils at bud break (delayed dormant) in fruit trees to control overwintering insect pests.
- Apply pre-emergent herbicides in late March – mid April to control annual weeds in your lawn (crabgrass, spurge…).
- Sharpen mower blades and prepare for the season. Set mower height to mow 2 1/2 to 3 inches tall, mow at this height entire summer.
- Consider including a native fruiting species in the landscape, including chokecherry, elderberry, serviceberry or currant.
Pests and Problems:
- Download ‘Utah Home Orchard Pest Management Guide’.
- Damping off is a fungal disease that affects new seedlings.
- Aspen leaf spot may be prevalent during cool, wet springs. Control measures should occur at bud break.
- Anthracnose may be prevalent during cool, wet springs. Control measures should occur at bud break.
- Control rust mites in apple and pear trees after leaves have emerged and expanded by 1/2 inch.
- For pears, apply dormant oil when leaf buds swell. This smothers eggs of the Pear psylla that are laid on buds by overwintering adults.
