Turning green for the spring

Kenneth Mabry is a radio personality for “In The Garden” at 6 a.m. every Saturday morning for WREC AM 600. With more than 25 years of experience at Dan West Garden Center, he is an overall expert in lawn and gardening. He answers people’s questions about problems they encounter in the yard and provides tips of how to get a head start on preventing problems. Spring is the next season approaching and many will be preparing to garden.


Q. When is it an important time to take care of plants, gardens and lawns?

A. “Well, every season is different bringing changing temperatures and less sun exposure to everything in people’s yard, which calls for different measures each season. This past winter we talked how it was important to save shrubbery from freezing weather by covering them with tarps or large cloths, but with warmer weather moving in it is time for people to prepare for early spring lawn care.”


Q. Since the spring is coming up, would it be important to start early on yard care or is there plenty of time to begin?

A. “Sooner is better than later, and right now is a great time to get a jump start on lawn and plant care. There are a lot of back-breaking tasks to generate a beautiful, colorful yard and starting early will make any size yard an easier task rather than all at once in the heat of summertime.”


Q. What measures does it take to produce a beautiful yard this spring?

A. “It takes raking, mulching, mowing, edging, planting, watering, clipping, sod laying, fertilizing, seeding and feeding all spring, through the summer, and for a bit in the fall. There is always something to do in the yard that is why it is important to take some tasks week-by-week, and starting this week would be a good time to knock out a few of those tasks.”


Q. Where would one start in the yard and how is this going to benefit for this spring?

A. “If you haven’t raked leaves then it would be a good time to clear the leaves from the lawn and flower beds, allowing the sun to hit them directly for proper exposure. The bare yard should be brown for the most part because it went dormant for the winter but allowing sunlight in will help promote growing.”


Q. What should people do to bring green back into their yards, and not weeds?

A. “Green will not be coming back for another month or so, but now it is important to apply a pre-emergent like dimension, which is a future weed prevention that stops weeds from sprouting. The next product to apply, if there are already weeds in the yard, is a weed killer, called weed-free zone that destroys 90 percent types of weeds.”


Q. How differently is the pre-emergent applied compared to the weed killer?

A. “Depending on the size of the yard for both products, the pre-emergent comes in a 25- and 50- pound bag and since it is in granulated form a broadcast spreader would be efficient enough for any size lawn. For the weed killer, it comes in an 8- and 16-ounce bottle and it is water soluble making a potent weed-killing recipe with 3 tablespoons per gallon.”


Q. What is another task people could be doing to make for a better yard this spring?

A. “Well most garden centers have a couple more weeks before annual spring plants arrive, so with a leaf-free yard it wouldn’t be a bad time to start mulching around trees, putting soil into flower beds or gardens. If there aren’t any trees or beds in the yard, then this is a perfect opportunity to plot the landscape with future flower beds, gardens and trees.”


Q. Do you do these tasks each year for beginning your yard for the spring?

A. “I do everything possible, including what I said here, to make my yard a pleasant sight. Take it from me; it is hard to keep any yard in tip-top shape, no matter how many years you’ve been doing it.”