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Are the plants in your yard beginning to leaf out or swell with buds yet? If they're not, they certainly will be soon. Maybe you're wondering about when to fertilize. Well, it depends.

A good layer of aged compost, aged manure or bark mulch can be placed around the base of your plants now. Create a ring around the plants that is 2 to 4 inches deep extending approximately 18 to 24 inches from the trunk of the plant. Be sure to leave a welled area at the base of the plant of roughly 3 inches wide around the trunk of the plant so the mulch doesn't touch the bark. This welled area is to direct water to the root system and for air circulation.

Once your trees and shrubs have leafed out, you can apply a timed-release fertilizer. Unless you have tested your soil and know where the soil's nutrients are lacking, a basic fertilizer can be used such as a 10-10-10. Fertilize is used to balance out the lacking or low level nutrients in your soil's pH. Here is a link to a page that will explain how to read the fertilize label and the best way to distribute it. For more fertilizing information - click here.