Fertilize Your Plants And Lawn Now And Get Good Results Later On

Late winter or early spring is an excellent time to fertilize trees, shrubs, flowers and vegetables. Feeding now encourages root development, flowers and spring top growth. It's easy to fertilize, but here are hints to make the job even easier:

Evergreens - Feed rhododendrons, camellias, azaleas, junipers, conifers and cypress with rhododendron food or evergreen fertilizer. Evergreen trees such as hemlocks, pines and fir can also be fertilized with these types of food. One exception: Give rose food to evergreen daphnes.

Deciduous plants - Fruit, flowering and shade trees and plants such as forsythia, spirea, quince and roses should be fed with rose or all-purpose vegetable-garden food.

Perennials and annuals - They do well when fertilized with rose or vegetable food. Fish fertilizer, Rapid-Grow, Miracle Grow, Peter's, 20-20-20, Liquinox and similar liquid plant foods can also be used. Annual flowers should be fertilized at planting time and once or twice in summer.

Ground covers - The easiest way is to spray liquid plant food onto the foliage. This gets to the plant quickly. Apply liquid plant food according to instructions, and do not apply when the weather is very hot or cold.

Vegetable garden - Several types of plant food can be used. A vegetable-garden fertilizer or 5-10-10 or 10-20-20 may be the most popular. Organic gardeners use fish fertilizer, bagged processed manure or bone meal. Fresh manure is often used in the fall so winter rains can break it down.

Houseplants - Fish fertilizer, Rapid-Grow, Peter's 20-20-20, Hyponex, oxygen plus and Miracle Grow are some of the best-known houseplant foods. Apply in spring, summer and fall. Little fertilizer should be given to houseplants when they are dormant, from November to March.

Lawns - Many turf specialists suggest a ratio of 3-1-2 for feeding the lawn. This translates out to a blend such as 12-4-8, 9-3-6 or 15-5-10. If moss is a problem, a spring lawn food containing moss killer can be used to feed the lawn and kill moss at the same time.

Although this is the best time to fertilize, many plants will also benefit from a feeding in late May or early June.

Apply fertilizer as directed on the label, and always apply dry fertilizers to the soil at the drip line of the plants. Always water in fertilizer thoroughly immediately after it has been applied. Otherwise, the dry fertilizer may burn the tender plant roots.

Some plants do not need feeding each year, so never feed just for the sake of fertilizing. Poor foliage color, stunted growth or poor flowering show a plant needs fertilizing.