Friday, Jan. 11, 2013

Gardeners: Here’s a checklist to start the year

Happy new garden year! Get off to a flying start with these tasks:

• Trim back rose bushes.

• Clean up leaves and debris around fruit trees and rose bushes to prevent the spread of disease.

• Apply oil to fruit trees soon after a rain to control scale, mites and aphids. Oils need 24 hours of dry weather after application to be effective. Don't apply on foggy days.

• This is also the time to spray a copper-based oil to peach and nectarine trees to fight leaf curl.

• In the vegetable garden, plant fava beans, head lettuce, mustard, onion sets, radicchio and radishes.

• Plant bare-root asparagus and root divisions of rhubarb.