| When should you start getting ready for the summer
garden?
Every year my husband and I have an argument
about when to clean-up and uncover the garden. What's too early? What's too
late? It seems that the weather conspires against me one year and against
him on another. I'm eager to start. Any advice?
When the first glorious early-spring days have you itching to get
back to your garden, let the plants be your guide. Here are a few suggestions
to help you use some of that spring-cleaning energy without endangering your
plants.
While early spring is a safe time to clean up wind-blown debris,
be careful not to remove winter cover from the tender shoots and buds just
unfolding from the ground. Late frosts can nip the buds of early starters,
like lilies, and destroy the first flush of growth and sometimes even the
flowers. So gently rake-up and compost loose debris, being careful not to
disturb the mulch that covers the tender new growth.
Prune the dead wood out of your shrubs and trees. If you're not
sure what is dead or alive, wait until late spring when swelling buds and
flowers will make pruning choices more apparent. Removing broken and obviously
dead wood can be satisfying enough to sate any spring gardening
hunger.
Though it's cold work, you can start your early spring divisions
of fibrous-rooted perennials as soon as the ground is soft enough to dig
but not wet. Working the soil when it's wet is bad for soil-structure and
hard on your back. So it's preferable to wait until the soil has had time
to dry-out from soaking rains or snow-melt. If the soil is wet enough to
make your shovel heavy, you're better off to wait for a day when the soil
can be worked without sticking to your spade.
Early spring is a great time to cut back flower heads and stems
that have been left from last summer. While they may have provided winter
interest and food for foraging creatures, they often look tattered and sad
by spring. Clearing out these relics of last years growth gives the garden
an early-spring facelift. Break up the clippings and mix them into your compost
for additional bulk.
Many varieties of ornamental grasses require an early spring haircut.
It is important to get them cut back before the new growth starts its journey
up the husks of last years growth. If you're not sure how low to cut, start
by cutting one stem. Check the center of the cut. If you see fresh, green,
concentric growth you may have cut too low or too late. Make the next cut
a bit higher and check the center again. Continue with this process until
you have a general sense of how high the new stems have grown. The discarded
clippings can be used to cover up tender plants that need to be protected
from late spring frosts. Or, add them to the compost pile.
In colder climes, compost piles often slow down in the winter. Early
spring is a good time to mix the old compost with the new clippings you've
been adding. By late spring, these new additions should be well along the
road to decomposition. You'll have excellent compost to top-dress the soil
or add to pots.
A good spring cleaning is enough to satisfy any gardening craving,
and provides us with a great reason to go out and enjoy those first, beautiful
spring days.
About the author: After spending her childhood in the garden, Jennifer
J. S. Stengle graduated from Cornell University in 1987 with a degree in
Floriculture and Ornamental Horticulture. For her own firm, she designs and
plants perennial gardens and small landscapes in New York and Connecticut.
She has also served as a consultant to a New York Interior-scaping firm.
She now lives in upstate New York, with her husband and son, where she continues
her perennial contemplation of plants |
