Lots to do to prepare garden for growing season

Leaves from a gardener's notebook:

• For the easiest way to prevent troubles in the iris patch, remove all old iris foliage and bloom stalks before new spring growth appears.

Cleaning up the patch now removes iris borer eggs, laid last fall on the leaves and stalks, before they have a chance to hatch and tunnel into the rhizomes. An early spring cleanup also removes spores that could cause leaf-spot diseases.

• Early spring pruning is a good way to control several rose problems. Remove and destroy broken or fallen canes now. Also make a pruning cut several inches below any abnormal swelling near the base of a cane, which could be caused either by borers or by a bacterial disease called crown gall. Sterilize pruners between cuts by dipping the blades in a 10 percent chlorine bleach solution or in rubbing alcohol.

If your roses aren't disease-resistant varieties, apply a dormant lime-sulfur spray before new leaves unfurl to kill any overwintering black-spot spores.

For detailed information on caring for roses, visit the Web site of the American Rose Society at www.ars.org.

• The best time to plant spinach seeds is now, allowing plenty of time to produce a fine crop of leaves before lengthening days encourage flower stalks instead. Spinach leaves produced during spring's cool weather also taste best.

The first picking of baby spinach leaves begins only three weeks after seeds are sown and will normally continue for three or four more weeks. Cover plants with cheesecloth or other lightweight cover to prevent leafminers from ruining spinach leaves with their light-colored patches.

• Whether you start onions from seeds, plants or sets, aim for early spring planting. The larger the tops before the bulbs start to form, the bigger the onion bulbs at harvest. A ready supply of nitrogen is also necessary in order to produce big bulbs.

Tiny onion bulbs, or "sets," make for fast planting but aren't a good choice if you want long-keepers. That's because onions grown from sets are often the first to produce seed stalks, which ruin storage potential.

• Thwart asparagus beetles by removing any asparagus tops still in the garden as soon as possible. The beetles typically spend the winter at the base of the dead tops or under garden trash. (Removing asparagus tops in late autumn, as soon as they are completely dry, is an even better option for stopping the beetles.)

• Top all mulches with a fresh layer now to stop over-wintering fungus disease from spreading to new growth.

• Jan Riggenbach's column appears every Sunday. Write to her in care of the Daily Herald, P.O. Box 280, Arlington Heights IL 60006. Enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope for a personal reply.