Wishing everyone a blessed Easter! While I won’t get to it this year, there are people like me who traditionally plant potatoes on Good Friday. So, that led me to thinking of lawn and garden things. A vegetable planting guide for our area compiled by Emeritus Extension Educator, Gary Zoubek can be found here: https://go.unl.edu/fecq.

Kelly Feehan, Extension horticultural educator shares, “Late March through April is typically the time to plant cool season vegetables. These vegetables germinate and grow in cooler soils and can tolerate light frosts. They include onions, potatoes, radish, lettuce, carrots, beets, peas, broccoli, and cabbage.

A tip for growing large onions that store well is starting from transplants instead of sets. Plants grown from sets may begin blooming in mid-summer. Once this happens, bulbs will not grow larger. Flowering happens because onions are biennials. They grow foliage and a bulb the first season, then bloom and set seed their second season. Growing sets for sale counts as one season and so plants from sets are primed to bloom when growth resumes in our gardens.

When growing onions from seed or transplants, plants are not primed to bloom the year we plant them. Some garden centers and catalogs now sell onion transplants for this reason. If you prefer to start from sets, use dime size or smaller sets as these are less likely to bloom the year of planting.

Potatoes are planted in April, sometimes late March or early May. A tip for increasing potato yields is hilling potatoes after they begin to grow. Once they are 12 to 20 inches tall, carefully scrape soil up around the plant to create a hill.

Potato tubers grow on stolons, underground stems, above the roots. Hilling provides more space for tubers to grow and maintains cooler soil temperatures, especially if hills are mulched. As a cool season crop, cooler soil will increase tuber production.

If potato hills are spaced closer together, tubers grow smaller. If hills are spaced farther apart, tubers grow larger. The recommended spacing is 12 inches between hills and 3 feet between rows. The 12-inch spacing will result in smaller tubers. An 18 to 24 inch spacing will result in larger tubers.”

Soil Temperatures can be found at:  https://cropwatch.unl.edu/soiltemperature. This is helpful for knowing when to plant vegetables, when to plant crops, and what the soil temp is when applying fertilizer to fields. It’s also helpful for homeowners to wait to apply crabgrass preventer for lawns until soil temps are at least 50-55F for 5-7 days straight. In spite of the warmer temps, it’s far too early for crabgrass preventers!

Lawn Seedings: For those who didn’t seed or overseed turf grass last August-September due to the dry conditions, aim to seed or overseed as soon as possible. Weed control can be a challenge with spring seedings, but a new product has helped with this. I tried it last year and it worked well for me. Just know that your weeds will turn white in the lawn. “Scotts Turf Builder Triple Action Built for Seeding” (blue bag) contains fertilizer and the herbicide mesotrione which provides PRE and POST control of weeds without affecting the new bluegrass or fescue seeding.

Male birds: To keep male birds from attacking your windows upon seeing their reflection when they’re establishing territories, consider placing a thin layer of liquid dish soap on the outside of the window. It can easily be washed off in late spring but will protect your windows and the male birds.