Monthly guideline to gardening

Vegetable garden-zones 7&8 planting schedule

December
- Use seed inoculant to dust seeds before planting. Or a mix of bone meal, Epson salts and seed inoculant to dust roots. Or kelp meal.
Vegetables
- sow English peas by a trellis (tomato cages will do)
- draw up a garden plan
- order summer seeds and seed inoculant.
- start seeds indoors before the 15th: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, celery, lettuce, parsley, Swiss chard and onions
- dig the soil looking for grubs, feed them to the chickens; only where it is mulched not under cover crops.
Fruit and Nuts
- Wrap the trunks with frost cover to prevent sun scald.
- Remove grasses and weeds to discourage rodents and improve air circulation.
- Mulch figs heavily to protect them from hard freezes.
Woods
Remove privet

January/February
Vegetables
- harden off winter vegetable seedlings and transplant to garden; cover with frost cloth; some veggies will get a stronger start if cloched under the row cover.
Fruit and Nuts
- look for a nice sunny day without rain or freeze on the forecast for at least 2 days, to trim grapes, kiwis, blueberries, blackberries, pomegranates,  raspberries, and when needed  apple, figs, pear, mulberry, Japanese persimmons, and Pawpaw trees.
- remove and burn wood that is diseased or infested with insects.
- apply dormant oil to fruit trees and bushes
- propagate bramble fruits as soon as buds begin to swell.
Ornamentals
- Prune crape myrtle severely to encourage development of new flowering wood.
- Prune lantana, and  hibiscus branches
Woods and gardens
- Remove privet
- Remove vinca, and creeping vines
- Remove weeds such as shiny cudweed

March
This month is excellent for weeding and getting ahead of honey suckles and all creeping vines.
Vegetables
- by the first plant potatoes and onions
- direct seed  beets, carrots, radishes, rutabaga, spinach
- indoors start seeds for eggplants, peppers and tomatoes
- weed the garden
Ornamentals
- severely prune rose bushes before March 15
Fruit and Nuts
- last days of the month remove the frost cloth protecting trunks.

April

This is the month to weed and transplant ornamental plants from Linda's garden and other friends gardens. 
- first days: Get horse or goat manure apply to all fruit trees, bushes, ornamentals, garden beds.
- weeding daily all areas.
Vegetables
- transplant broccoli, Swiss chard, lettuce seedlings
Fruit and Nuts
- Apply especial formula organic fertilizer to citrus and pecans
- check fruit trees and blackberries for rust blackberry rust
Ornamentals
- transplant coleus, Cuban oregano, Mexican petunias and angel trumpets and as many as you want/need ornamental plants from friend's gardens.





October
Vegetables- sow ground covers, such as crimson clover, winter rye, etc
Thin the strawberry patch

Transplant crab apple near apple tree and the two melon trees to the west area (they are not blooming at the same time); transplant pomegranate between fig and grape its too tight; plant apple tree. Remove bartlet pear and make space for chicago hardy fig.