• Finalize your spring vegetable garden design in preparation for planting the next few months. Consider adding drip irrigation for more efficient watering. Making every drop count is crucial during dry periods. It also reduces disease pressure on plants.
• Start planting Irish potatoes such as White Kennebec and Red La Soda. Dig a trench one foot deep and set potato pieces containing one or more eyes every foot apart. Fill the trench half way with enriched composted soil and keep filling as the stems emerge leaving about two inches above the soil.
• Blackberry plants such as Brazos, Rosborough, and Kiowa are an easy to take care of addition for the home garden. Plants should be spaced two to three feet apart in rows eight to twelve feet apart. Nursery plants in containers can be planted at any time of year, although early spring is best and watering will be critical.
• Fall planted strawberries need to be fertilized every three weeks to accelerate growth and flower production through February and early March. Harvesting of berries from late March through late May will potentially produce one pint of delicious fruit per plant.
  

David Rodriguez is the County Extension Agent-Horticulture with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service in Bexar County. For more information, call the Master Gardener “Hotline” (210) 467-6575 or visit our County Extension website at http://bexar-tx.tamu.edu.