Spring Clean Up [photo caption- Cum Laude, my favorite daffodil from Brent and Becky’s Bulbs.]
Well, spring is just around the corner and, now that our snow has melted, it is a good time to do some spring cleaning chores in the garden. I started some today (March 6).
Remove deal plant parts- I pulled or cut back dead leaves from irises, lilies, and other herbaceous plants that have a partial die back and re-sprout. These are not very good for the compost heap, as they may harbor insect pests or diseases. We have a brush pile in the back where we put stuff like this, so that it decomposes, but we do not use it for the garden.
Pruning and trimming: I also did some trimming on some over-enthusiastic evergreen hollies (the kind that looks like box hedge), and light pruning on my crape myrtles (please don’t butcher them- see entry on crape-a-cide) and buddleia (buddleia trimming can wait until even mid-April). If a tree is in bud, it is too late to prune.
Turn that compost heap. If it hasn’t been turned this winter, it may be a slippery and aromatic job, but it must be turned to get it back to heating and breaking down. If t is very wet, adding some wood shavings or other dry matter should help.
Mulch. It’s a good time of year to renew that mulch.
Make plans. I think I am going to rip out some boring foundation plantings and put in an English flower border at the front of my front porch. Now is the time to plan for that sort of stuff!
Add soil amendments in the veg garden or start digging them in- esp. if you layered the soil in the fall with leaves or pine straw or planted a cover crop. These materials need some time to break down.
There is still time to cover up grassy areas that you want to convert into veg or flower beds or wood chipped paths. Old tarps, shower curtains, planks of wood, wetted and weighed down newspaper, can all be used to kill grass (my favorite garden task!).
Start some early-season crops- March 17 is the traditional day to plant peas and potatoes, but also lettuce, radishes, turnips, some greens like kale, can be planted now!
As the weather starts to warm and we have these intermittent nice days, get out there and putter! Especially as the day will be getting longer, and we can get in a little garden workout before dinner…
Happy gardening!
I thought of two possible captions for the photo above: "a picture only a gardener could love" or "love me, love my dirt!" (and it is beautiful soil!) We have a main vegetable garden and two newer garden areas, called the Oscar bed and the Barkley bed, named for the dogs that reside on either side of us (and the Barkley bed now has the Zoe extension, after Barkley's sister). I was in the Oscar bed today digging and weeding and the photo is one result. The snow is gone, the ground is finally dry enough to dig , but not too dry to impede pulling weeds, and the weekend weather should warm up to a delightful mid- to upper-50's in the Mid-Atlantic region this weekend- the perfect time to dig and get ready for those early season crops, seeds of which you can begin planting now! These include lettuces, arugula, chard, kale, beets, radishes, and peas. So hop to it! The winter doldrums are ending, and we all need to get more active (if only to shed those extra Christmas cookie pounds)!
