Resolve to prune, rake and plant

Keep your resolution for a more beautiful and productive garden in 2018. Where to get started?

▪ Prune, prune, prune! This is rose-pruning season. Trim back bushes to one-half their total size.

▪ Clean up leaves and debris around fruit trees and rosebushes to prevent the spread of fungal disease.

▪ Apply oil to fruit trees soon after a rain to control scale, mites and aphids. Oils need 24 hours of dry weather after application to be effective. Don’t apply on foggy days.

▪ Spray a copper-based oil on peach and nectarine trees to fight leaf curl.

▪ In the vegetable garden, plant fava beans, head lettuce, mustard, onion sets, radicchio and radishes.

▪ Plant bare-root asparagus and root divisions of rhubarb.

This story was originally published January 5, 2018 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Resolve to prune, rake and plant."