Spring is just around the corner.
Get busy with the lawn fertilization schedule, get busy planting tomato and early vegetable gardens, get busy pruning fruit trees.
In fact, it's time to prune every manner of tree. It's also time to plant trees, scalp the lawn, dethatch the lawn, aerate, mulch ... you get the point.
But, you may be asking, "Randy ... what if we get another freeze between now and, say, March 1?"
Well, I just checked out the Weather Channel's 15-day forecast. Through Feb. 23 in the Houston area, there are only two days when lows are expected to barely drop into the 40s. So, worrying that we might still have a freeze is really irrelevant.
Could we still get a freeze? Sure. But why not take advantage of this awesome weather instead? And as I did in February 2014, I'm encouraging you to get busy starting today! Back then I said, and I'll reiterate now, DON'T GET WIMPY ON ME!
If, however, you are great at "creative avoidance," you'll ignore this nudge or find some weather prognosticator who uses wooly worms or something to help you justify blowing off all the work that really needs to be done soon. But here's my message to anyone interested in getting to work: even if get a tiny bit of cold air between now and March 1, the potential for freezing weather is irrelevant.
Lawn Fertilization Schedule - Freezing weather would have no effect! It's about soil temperature, and one night at 32 is irrelevant.
Planting Tomatoes - We wouuld need to protect them if the temperature drops below 40, so at 32 we would have already done it. Therefore, an argument for creative avoidance is again irrelevant! We like to cheat Mother Nature's normal calendar, because once our nighttime temps exceed 75 degrees, tomatoes will often shut down.
Pruning Fruit Trees - Temps would need to be in the low 20s to have a negative effect on newly pruned fruit trees. And the end of February is the normal time to prune them. So ... IRRELEVANT!
Pruning Big Trees - This is supposed to be done December through February anyway, so now you're actually running out of time. Delay is irrelevant!
Planting All Trees - If you can transplant containerized trees in January, right after a freeze, you don't even have to ask if it's okay today, do you?
Scalping the Lawn - Here's some relevance: if you have a freshly scalped lawn and we get a freeze, just the top ¼ inch or so might get singed. That's all! By the way, scalping the lawn (ABOVE) involves just lowering your mower blades a notch or two and bagging the dead grass clippings from January's freeze.
Time to Aerate - If you guessed irrelevant again, you're right! A night in the low 30s doesn't have much effect on soil temperature.
Time to Mulch - Since it's never too late to do the right thing, there's never a bad time to mulch. So don't let any cold weather stop you from doing it.
I could go on and on. But you probably have more questions about "getting busy" outside at this time of year, and many of of them probably have nothing to do with a potential freeze. So for all those questions, I say "bring 'em on" this weekend live on the air or by email. Let's get to some relevant talking points!