Spring is around the corner. The cool season grasses such as fescue, ryegrass, and bluegrass are those lawns over which people have exclaimed, "You Look marvelous!" (Can't you just hear Billy Crystal!) They have been bright green all winter. They are still growing fast; mow them weekly with a rotary mower (to 1 1/2 inches in height).

You should be feeding all established lawns now with a complete lawn fertilizer - containing phosphorus and potassium as well as nitrogen - to get warm-season grasses off to a good start and keep cool-season grasses going longer. A healthy, well-fed lawn is better able to withstand pests and diseases and choke out weeds

Warm-season grasses, such as Bermuda, dichondra, and zoysia, are waking up from winter dormancy. As they start growing, begin mowing weekly with a reel mower to the correct height for each. Mow common Bermuda to 1 inch, hybrid Bermuda to 1/2 or 1/4 inch, St. Augustine to between 3/4 and 1 1/4 inches, and zoysia to 3/4 to 1 inch height. Cut adalayd grass with a rotary mower between 3/4 and 1 inch in height.

We have mentioned two different kinds of lawn mowers: rotary and reel. A rotary mower is one in which one blade spins horizontally and uses a sucking and tearing action to cut the blades of grass. A reel mower is one in which the blades spin vertically and use a scissoring action to cut the blades of grass.

You notice that we recommend fertilizing with a complete fertilizer (we recommend Master Green Easy Livin' Lawn Food for most lawns). While nitrogen gives your lawn top growth and a healthy green color you can see, phosphorus and potassium feed the roots and growth systems of the plant that are unseen but just as important. Phosphorus and potassium are longer lasting in soil than nitrogen, so one feeding a season with them is often adequate. After this complete feeding, you can switch to a less expensive, pure nitrogen fertilizer if desired, and feed warm-season grasses with it once a month for the rest of the growing season.

Before applying your complete fertilizer, be sure to read the instructions for your lawn type. Apply fertilizer when the ground is damp and grass blades dry, and follow up by watering deeply. Otherwise, you risk burning your lawn.

We have not had much rain yet this winter. Normally, you might have lessened your lawn and garden watering, but perhaps not as much this year. Irrigate all lawns now, according to their individual needs, if the rains have not been adequate.

Both warm- and cool-season grasses may be bought as sod, and cool-season grasses can be planted from sod any month year-round. Although you can plant both warm- and cool-season grasses from seed this month, fall is actually a better time to plant cool-season grass seed. This is because fall planting gives cool-season grasses planted from seed more time to establish a root system before summer heat arrives. When planting warm-season grasses, wait until the weather has warmed up in your area. (If you plan to plant zoysia, it's best to wait until June.)

There are numerous lawn types and you should investigate each of them before choosing and planting one. How do you choose which grass is right for you? There are many considerations: sun, shade, foot traffic, pets, children, hardiness, style, color, and simply the 'look' that you like.

When planting a new lawn, regardless of the type of grass and method of planting you choose, be sure to prepare the site thoroughly. You must also make sure your irrigation system is in proper order to ensure full water coverage.

For all lawns, roto-till deeply, add plenty of soil amendment, (Almaden Valley Nursery recommends tilling in soil building compost and Soil Buster Gypsum, to break up hard soils), then level and roll this amended ground. "Level" might mean rolling the area completely flat or it may mean compacting the soil but adding mounded areas of interest. The point is to level out soil so that your new lawn is not filled with hundreds of hills and valleys that would make walking on it (and mowing it) difficult.

If you have chosen to put in a seed lawn, sprinkle seeds evenly. This is most efficiently done using a hand-held fertilizer spreader or a seed spreader and covering the seeds with mulch or a lawn topper product.

Almaden Valley Nursery has a free lawn prep/care guide to assist you.

Just water and watch. In a few months - voila - your new lawn!

Lawn (lon) noun. A usually closely mown plot or area planted with grass or similar plants. [variant of obsolete laund, from Middle English launde, lawnde, from Old French launde, heath]

Heath (heth) noun. 1. Any of various usually low-growing shrubs of the genus Erica and related genera, native to the Old World, having small, evergreen leaves and small, urn-shaped pink or purplish flowers. 2. An extensive tract of open, uncultivated land covered with such shrubs or similar plants; a moor.

Moor (moor) noun. A broad tract of open land, often high but poorly drained, with patches of heath and peat bogs.

At what point of history did a lawn become defined solely as closely cropped green turf grass? Was it originally to walk on? Was it developed at the time we domesticated animals such as cows, horses, and sheep that fed on grasses? Was it for lawn bowling, golf, or cricket?

'True' grasses include not only what we now know as lawn grass, but also cereal grains, as well as those grains grown as ornamental garden grasses. Bamboo is also in this category. Over the years, the meaning of grass has expanded to include a wide range of plants with narrow to strap-like leaves. This group includes rushes, sedges, liriopes, flax (phormium) and cattails.

Today, we also have an even greater list of ornamental plants that can be used instead of a turf grass. We have categorized them as 'lawn substitutes' when they are used in this fashion. All of these plants and all of the grasses listed above can be members of your gardens, functioning in a decorative way and complementing other floral and foliage plantings.

There are multiple reasons to consider alternativee plants in place of a regularly mown lawn. Too much shade, too little water, too much water, a preference for alternate ground covers, preference for alternativee grasses…the reasons can go on and on. The options available today are many, and they are beautiful.

There are many plants besides the usual lawn grasses that will tolerate foot traffic. Varieties of cerastium, chamomile, dymondia, pratia, silene, and thyme are all examples of ground covers that take some foot traffic and would be beautiful lawn substitutes. Some of these flower; others release a wonderful fragrance with each step.

There are many other lawn substitutes to choose from, depending upon your needs and requirements. The choices increase if you have areas with very little foot traffic. Use these in combination with each other by placing the most traffic-tolerant plants in the heaviest foot traffic areas. Combine these with some of the many ornamental grasses.

Other classic and beautiful substitutes for lawns are listed below.

For that shady area of your garden:
Campanula, vinca minor (periwinkle blue flowers), pachysandra (spreads quickly), lily turf(ophiopogon or liriopes) baby tears, sword fern, and hosta (hardy cultivars).

And, of course, for the sun:
Thyme (many varieties), sedum (many varieties), and trailing gazania are all good choices.

Today, more and more people are bringing back a more natural look to their yards and gardens. Many areas of the country are working hard to maintain and reestablish the native plant habitats. You can join in this passionate evolution of gardens. Remember, until recent years, grass meant only a 'lawn', green and mown. There are now many alternatives to that bowling lawn look. Enjoy seeking out and planting your new lawn substitutes.

Organic gardening can be a contribution to the quality of the environment. If you are a vegetable gardener, it is also a contribution to the quality and safety of your edibles. Suburban gardeners, pick up your garden hoses! Oh yes, and learn to pinch together your thumb and index fingers. Here we go - a lesson on organic gardening.

Organic gardening involves the gardener's approach to soil preparation, fertilizing, pest management, and weed removal. As you might imagine, the organic gardener will practice the most environmentally safe methods.

Once you have selected your vegetable garden plot location, whether your soil is clay or sand (or anything in between), you will want to supplement the native soil with an organic compost soil amendment containing mychorrizae and fortified with nitrogen and iron. Roto-till or use the good old-fashioned shovel to mix in these amendments and level out the soil.

Of course, many gardeners like to maintain a compost pile. Composting, done properly, is an excellent product to enhance the soil and thereby improve the plant heath. Other gardeners like to use manure as a portion of this soil amending process. If that is your choice, make sure that you do this a month or so ahead of planting the garden, and water thoroughly. Manures add a considerable amount of salt and high nitrogen to the mix, too much for new young seedlings or plants. (They may burn).

Fertilizing can sometimes seem complicated. The three most important nutrients for healthy plants are N-P-K or nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Nitrogen is necessary for healthy, green plant foliage growth. Phosphorus is needed for the plant's root, flower, and eventual fruit (veggie) growth. Potassium is necessary for overall healthy plants through good root growth and fruit production. Almaden Valley Nursery carries a full line of Dr. Earth Organic fertilizers and soil amendments.

All of these nutrients are in your soil naturally. Depending upon your soil type, they may be in balance or they may not. You could have your soil tested for nitrogen, phosphoros, potassium (NPK) and other minerals to determine whether you have any deficiencies at all.

If you are a compost gardener, this process adds all of the nutrients that your soil and plants need. If you do not compost, then you may want to consider other organic products that will enhance the quality of your soil.

Organic sources of nitrogen (N) are derived from fish meal, cottonseed meal, alfalfa meal, and fish bone meal. Organic phosphorus (P) comes from fish bone meal, cottonseed meal, and alfalfa meal. And finally, organic potassium (K) comes from kelp meal, cottonseed meal, and alfalfa meal. The nutrients are released quickly as the beneficial soil microbes called mychorrizae digest the product. We have most of these micronutients in the store at all times.

You may have a question as to why organic gardening uses the organic fertilizers instead of chemical fertilizers. The reason is simple. Organic fertilizers are more stable in the soil and become available to the plant more gradually. While they are feeding the plants, they are also improving the soil health. The plants grow a bit more slowly, but that gives them more strength and resistance to disease and pests.

Chemical fertilizers (vs. organic) are designed to make the N-P-K (and minerals such as iron, magnesium, sulfur, etc.) available “now” to a plant, and this is like putting a plant “on steroids.” Also, the plant can't use up all that is applied and unfortunately, through your watering process and/or rain, those nutrients will be washed away (possibly into the metropolitan water system). Alternatively, the organic products are designed to slowly decompose to enhance the soil and also be consumed by the mychorrizae, and then taken up by the plant root system.

You will discover that all of the products contain varying N-P-K ratios. Ask one of our staff for assistance in determining which will be the best for your individual garden.

Are there unwanted visitors in your garden? Time to apply good IPM (Integrated Pest Management) practices, using organic fertilizers and resistance to applying herbicides (for weed killing). Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, is the approach to pest control that requires regular monitoring of your garden to determine if and when treatments are needed. And it employs physical, mechanical, cultural, and biological methods to keep pest numbers low enough to meet your toleration or annoyance levels.

Classic organic gardening pest management employs simple, completely non-toxic techniques such as hand-picking the tomato horn worm, hand removal of leaves harboring the leafminers, squishing snails or water-blasting off aphids or cabbage moths from your plants.

Now you understand the need for your garden hose and pinching fingers!

The next level up is to use the least toxic controls such as insecticidal soaps, spray oils, and other natural products (pyrethrums from chrysanthemums, for example) to combat annoying insects, powdery mildew and rust. This category of products satisfies another large group of gardeners - those willing to spend time evaluating their plants and treating (and retreating) upon need. This level is also still safe to apply to edibles.

And the highest level is for those gardeners completely intolerant of garden pests. However, that level is also toxic for edibles and should not be considered for a vegetable garden.

Now, what about the weeds? Avoid herbicides in vegetable gardens. Some gardeners like to use a cover crop such as clover in between their rows of vegetables. This works great. Or, you can cover your hands with a great pair of gloves and pull out the weeds (it's good exercise, too)! And then, to keep the weeds down, MULCH, MULCH, MULCH. Almaden Valley Nursery also carries Concern Corn Gluten, an organic pre-emergent (once you have all weeds removed).

Organic vegetable gardening is especially rewarding. Your vegetables will be so fresh, so delicious, so much the ultimate of vegetable goodness, that you will become spoiled and never want to buy from a grocery produce department again. Every time you step into your garden to harvest tomatoes, beans, broccoli, potatoes, lettuce, or whatever you have grown, a smile will rise to your lips. Be proud of yourself. You should be!

Southern indicas are sun-loving azaleas, developed here in the USA from the original indicas. They are hardy and contain an enormous selection of hybrids in many sizes, shapes, and flower colors. These azaleas are among the more vigorous, hardier, and faster growing of the azaleas. Plant them in masses or as individual specimens.

We have a large collection of the Southern indicas or 'Sun azaleas.'

We have a wide variety of plants that will complement your Southern indicas if you wish to create a garden that features azaleas. Also consider adding a tree or two to the sunny side of your garden. The Redbud and Tristania Laurina 'Elegant' are excellent smaller scale trees for the sunny side of a garden with limited space. Whatever your preferences, Southern indicas are a wonderful addition to your garden.

Perhaps your garden has both sun and shade areas. No reason for an overall azalea theme to end at the edge of the sun. Ask us about our Belgian indicas, the shade-loving azaleas. We’ll help you to combine flower colors and plant growth to create an azalea garden that's perfect for you.

Ferne was born in Iowa and spent many summers there at her grandparents' farm after her family moved to Colorado. She learned to love gardening, canning, quilting, and sewing from her grandmother but claims her most important life lessons have been learned from raising her two boys.