When our son was three, he used to get excited when he would hear a “fever bird”—chickadee, to the rest of us—singing its spring melody. With a call that to the anticipating ear does sound like a sweetly-spoken “fee-ver,” the chickadee’s song reminds me now each spring of the excitement I feel as the new season arrives. As spring begins, let’s consider a few of the tasks to get started on around the yard this month to help soothe your spring fever.

First off, planting season has arrived. Of course, it’s too early to even consider planting summer annuals or getting your tomatoes in the ground, but now is the time to start planting shrubs and trees around your yard. With the threat of severe winter weather all but gone and regular, free watering from the rain, the timing is perfect to assess what plants to add to your landscape.

In recent years, fruit trees have become popular with gardeners looking to add more than just beauty to their landscaping. With beautiful blooms in spring, cherries, apples, peaches, pears and more all add color with the added benefit of fresh, juicy fruit come summer. Consider adding a dwarf fruit tree or two to your yard this spring–at Vander Giessen’s we carry a great selection of dwarf fruit trees from late winter through spring. Topping out at just ten to fifteen feet or less, dwarf trees are suitable even for today’s smaller yards, and with many self-pollinating options or grafted combination trees giving you multiple varieties of fruit on one tree, you can plant a single tree and enjoy fruit for years to come.

If even a dwarf fruit tree is too big for your space, you can still enjoy fresh fruit in summer by growing your own berries. Blueberries are generally very easy to grow and produce loads of berries each summer, followed by colorful leaves in fall and reddish stems in winter. Available in full-size varieties that can reach four to six feet tall or dwarf selections well-suited for growing in containers on your patio, there are perfect varieties to fit any gardener’s needs. Stop in to check out the great selection of berries in stock in our garden center now!

Second, March is the time to start fertilizing the plants around your yard. For most of the plants in my landscape, I rely on two fertilizers: Espoma Azalea-Tone for acid-lovers like rhododendrons, azaleas, and conifers; and Jack’s Classicote for just about everything else. Azalea-Tone can be used on blueberries as well, or you can opt for Berry-Tone for clearer instructions on feeding your fruit-bearing plants. Remember, for blueberries, it’s best to feed twice each season: before blooming and again after the flowers fall and the fruit begins to develop. Both Jack’s fertilizers and Espoma products are available at the nursery year-round.

Third, yard care season has begun, and once you get out on your lawn, you’re likely to find a healthy crop of moss once again, thanks to the mild, wet weather we had last autumn. Start off your moss-eradication regimen with a dose of MossMax or ferrous sulfate, both iron-based moss killers. Follow up a week later with Lightning Lime, a fast-acting lime that quickly raises soil pH to discourage moss growth and improve fertilizer uptake, and finish out the three-step plan with a good spring fertilizer like Scotts Turf Builder with Moss Control. This three-step plan is proven to work to revitalize a winter-weary lawn–stop in and let us help you get your lawn back in shape!

After you’ve killed the moss in your lawn, it may be necessary to thatch (or dethatch, depending on who you ask!) your lawn to remove the dead moss and build-up of dead grass. Hold off with this project, however, until we’ve had at least a week or so of drier weather since this process can damage lawns when the ground is too wet. Following the dethatching process, I recommend overseeding your lawn to help rejuvenate the turf.

Finally, as the weather begins to warm and plants start to wake up, so too will the weeds, so this month is a good time to apply a preemergent herbicide like Crabgrass Plus to your lawn to prevent crabgrass, poa annua, and a host of broadleaf weeds. I use this product each year and enjoy a lawn free from crabgrass all summer, with only a few broadleaf weeds sprouting in late summer. Keep in mind, however, if you plan to overseed your lawn at some point this spring, you’ll want to apply preemergent well before or after seeding, as the herbicide can prevent grass seed from sprouting or kill recently-sprouted grass.

With classic wet March weather that defines a Pacific Northwest start to spring, it’s probably fair to say many of us are getting a dose of spring fever, so next time you hear a chickadee’s sweet song, might I suggest going outside to do some gardening? It’s a proven way to soothe a spring fever.