Southwest Gardener's March Checklist

The American Southwest is a vast area, covering all of Arizona and New Mexico and Elements of California, Nevada, Texas and Utah. The areas of the Southwest are diverse and include non deserts, high deserts and mountainous areas, covering USDA zones 5 though 9.

It’s difficult to believe that winter is almost through and spring is just around the corner. Soon gardens will be awash in varying shades of green with brightly colored blossoms. In the desert areas, it is time to start pruning and dress up the landscape by adding some fresh flowering shrubs and vines. Gardeners in high elevations can get an early start on vegetable gardening by planting seeds indoors.

Desert gardeners should check their irrigation system for any leaks, broken sprinkler heads or drip emitters. With warmer temperatures on their way, plants will require reliable watering to grow their very best. Don’t wait until you start seeing dead plants in your landscape to realize you have a problem. Check your irrigation today. Grass will soon turn green, so it is time to ensure that your sprinklers are functioning. Replace any damaged heads and fix any leaks. Turn on the drip irrigation and then walk around, checking each emitter. If there isn’t any water coming out, or when there is too small, it is time to cut the old emitter away and add a new one.

More regional backyard guides

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Low Deserts (up to 3,000 Trainers)

Spend some time evaluating your landscape. Is it looking colorless and boring? March is a good time to add color and attention by planting summer-flowering shrubs and vines.

Flowering vines are a great way to dress up an entryway or to add color to a weapon. Consider developing these pink-blooming vines: Queen’s Wreath (Antigonon leptopus), shown here;pink bower vine (Pandorea jasminoides) or pink trumpet vine (Podranea ricasoliana).

Red bird-of-paradise (Caesalpinia pulcherrima), Baja fairy duster (Calliandra californica), Texas sage (Leucophyllum frutescens), chaparral blossom (Salvia clevelandii) andArizona yellow bells (Tecoma stans stans) are big summer-flowering shrubs that add great color to the landscape.

Large footprints, 5 ft and higher, should be planted toward the back of the landscape. Shrubs are a great way to conceal a boring wall or fence. They are also effective at hiding air-conditioning components and pool gear from view. Plant lower-growing shrubs and perennials in the front of taller shrubs.

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Do you love citrus? March is the best time of year to add a fresh citrus tree to the backyard. Any pruning your citrus needs must also be done this month. Citrus trees do not need much pruning. Focus on eliminating dead or crossing branches.

Whilst eliminating lower branches of citrus therefore they have a much more traditional tree shape is popular, try to avoid the temptation. Lower branches of citrus trees bear the sweetest fruit, and also the most of it. The branches also help to protect the trunk of this tree out of sunburn.

Revealed: Grapefruit

How to Maintain Your Citrus Trees Well Fed and Healthy

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Prune frost-damaged growth. Make sure to wait to prune before the danger of frost has passed. Not certain when your last frost date is? Check out your town’s average frost dates.

Frost-tender plants, like lantana (Lantana spp), look their best when pruned severely back to 6 inches. This sort of pruning rejuvenates the plant by stimulating new expansion, which will produce more leaves and blossoms than the old branches.

Revealed: Pruned ‘Radiation’ Lantana (Lantana camara ‘Radiation’)

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When you’re pruning frost-damaged trees and shrubs, it can be difficult to tell which parts are dead and which parts are still living. Often when plants are frost ruined, they lose most of their leaves. But although a branch might be leafless, it doesn’t signify that the entire division is dead.

The hint to knowing which parts are living is to look closely at the branches, which will inform you where to make your pruning cut. The region of the branch that’s still living will start to leaf out, while the parts that are dead won’t. Make your pruning cut 1/4 inch above the point where the new growth occurs.

Wait until new growth appears prior to pruning.

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Mid- to High Deserts (3,000 to 6,000 Feet)

Would you enjoy the notion of having new fruit growing in your backyard? How about growing apples, apricots, peaches or plums? This is a superb time to purchase bare-root or container fruit trees and plant them in your garden.

For many fruit trees (apples, apricots and plums), you will get the very best fruit production should you purchase at least two distinct varieties of each type of tree. This is due to the fact that fruit trees cannot pollinate themselves; they rely on pollen from the same type of tree but another selection.

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Woody, overgrown shrubs will benefit from pruning. Focus on eliminating nonproductive old branches by pruning them off near the bottom of the tree — loppers or a pruning saw work nicely for this type of pruning. Since the temperatures warm, fresh growth will appear.

Revealed: New growth emerging from a severely pruned woody shrub.

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Upper Elevations (Over 6,000 Trainers)

Before you know it, it is going to be time to go outside and start planting your vegetable garden. To acquire a jump-start, grow vegetables and flower seeds indoors approximately eight weeks before the final frost date in your area. By that time, you will have eight-week-old seedlings ready to plant in the backyard.

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Prune deciduous trees. Pruning ought to be done before the leaf buds begin to swell. The exclusion is walnut and birch trees and shrubs that flower in spring. Don’t prune them today; wait until they have finished flowering.

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Get your soil ready for planting in later spring by working 2 to 3 inches of compost into the top 6 inches of soil. The advantages of compost in the garden are many. Two major ones are that compost adds nutrients to the soil and enhances the feel of both sandy and clay soils.

Don’t worry if you do not make your own compost. You can purchase some at your local nursery.

Prepare for April. Warm spring temperatures are a great time to include succulents to your garden.

Tell us : How are you preparing your Southwest garden for spring?

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