With the turn of the new year, January is a great time to take on a few tasks that will help you be better prepared for the soon-to-be Spring bloom!
Check Irrigation
Turn on your irrigation one zone at a time and carefully inspect turn off valves, headers, drip lines, couplers, emitters and endplugs. We more often than not, find a few teeth marks that have punctured hosing, thanks to our local vermin!
If you have a drip system, this is a great time to flush any Y-filters that are attached to your irrigation and check that there are no clogs in main irrigation valves. Be sure to also check any individual emitters and ensure they are flowing the appropriate amount of water.
2. Feed seedlings
We like to periodically bottom feed our newly sprouted seedlings with a kelp solution or a product such as Super Thrive. This encourages strong root development and we have found our seedlings to be more tolerant to transplanting out into the field.
3. Sow remaining Spring annuals
This is the time when we start to sow our Spring annuals that like slightly warmer temperatures. Our list includes blooms such as: Gomphrena, Strawflower, and Corncockle, Sweet Sultan, Orlaya, and Chocolate Lace Flower.
Our favorite vendors include:
4. Purchase Spring-planted, Summer flowering bulbs or tubers such as Dahlias.
When it comes to dahlias, we recommend finding a flower farm that is within your growing region.
At our farm, our Dahlias start to wake in early March. We encourage gardeners to purchase locally so that they are likely to receive stock in and around the time when it is appropriate for planting in their region, rather than waiting for tubers that might be coming from a different region of the country.
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