Next to fall, early spring is the best time to plant in San Diego gardens. Plus, you’ll find nurseries well stocked with blooming perennials. Here are some March gardening tips for a beautiful spring garden.
Plant Perennials in Your San Diego Garden
Soil and air temperatures are still cool making this a good time to add perennials to your garden. This gives plants a chance to get better established before they’re stressed by summer heat.
Here are some tough performers and heat-lovers that work well in San Diego gardens: alstroemeria, verbena, coreopsis, lavenders, kangaroo paws, sages, pincushion flowers, asters, penstemons, heliotropes, artemisia and African daisies.
Control Ants and Aphids
Warming spring weather and new plant growth attract aphids. Knock the aphids off your roses, citrus and other plants with a strong spray of water. If you’re not squeamish, you can also squish them with your fingers. Ladybugs and tiny parasitic wasps can also help keep aphid populations down.
Ants will tend the aphids to feed on the honeydew they extract. To keep ants out of trees, wrap the trunk with a several-inch wide piece of paper, duct tape or tree wrap and coat that with a sticky material like Tanglefoot.
Manage Snails and Slugs
Snails and slugs like the cloudy spring weather we often find in San Diego gardens. If your plants are getting damaged by snails and slugs, you can control them without using pesticides. Remove daytime hiding places like rocks, pots and pieces of wood. Handpick any snails you find. Bag them and put them in the trash. A band of copper placed around pots and trees is also helpful. Snails don’t like to cross over it.
Snail baits made from iron phosphate like Sluggo and Escar-Go are safe to use around dogs, children and wildlife. You can also try beer or melon rind traps. More info on snail and slug control is at the University of California’s Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program.
San Diego Garden Tips Source
A lot of information for San Diego Gardening Tips comes from the Master Gardener Association of San Diego County. They are a great resource for all of your gardening needs including planting, pests, vegetables, and water use. They even have a free hotline where you can get your home gardening and pest control problems answered.