Beaver Valley Probus Club

Things to do in your garden each month taken from the Ontario Master Gardener Calendar by John Hethrington, Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario. 

March 2020:

• Start tuberous begonias and caladiums and bring them back to life in pots using damp peat moss. 
• Start brassicas (cabbage family) and hardy annual seeds for April-May planting in your garden. 
• Start tomatoes, lettuce and other fast-growing seeds late March, or early April this year. 
• Order summer flowering bulbs. Try www.botanus.com for interesting high-quality bulbs. 
• Get your “To-Do” list for this spring and summer into your computer so you can’t say you lost it. 
• Spread triple 19 fertilizer on the snow on your flower beds and shrub borders before it goes. It’s available at the Markdale Co-Op on Hwy 10 south of Markdale. Ask for our 599 10% discount from the regular price. Call 1-519-986-2031. 
• Check and repair gardening tools. Find them first. Sharpen spades, shovels, etc. Wipe down wooden handles with boiled linseed oil. Paint the handles of small hand tools like trowels with red or yellow fluorescent enamel, so you won’t lose them so often. 
• Apply combination dormant spray to fruit trees and pest-prone shrubs when non-freezing weather permits. Especially good against scale. 
• Start forcing branches of spring-flowering shrubs like Forsythia, and lily-of-the-valley root pips after buds start to swell, later in the month. 
• Prune summer-flowering shrubs and vines when the snow has disappeared. 
• When the snow has gone, and the frost disappears, loosen up packed winter mulch and push perennials back into the soil that have been heaved out of place by the frost. 
• Plan to add a few native berry plants and shrubs that will attract the birds this summer. 
• Visit local nursery greenhouses to smell the coming spring. 
• Check dates for annual garden shows like Canada Blooms, Mar 13 - 22 2020, co-locating with the National Home Show at the Enercare Centre in the CNE grounds. Tickets Reg. $20, Seniors $17, Early Bird on-line to Mar 7, Regular $17, Sr only $14 www.candablooms.com. 
• REMEMBER 
• • Paul Zammit is coming back to the Community Centre in Thornbury for our April Meeting, Thursday April 9 @ 7 pm to talk about perennials. It’s a joint 599 Garden Club /Probus Club presentation. Guests welcome for $10. Get tickets at the March Meeting.