Spring Clean Up

The time is upon us and if you live in the north the ground is gradually thawing and it’s probably muddy, but fall bulbs are energetically pushing their heads up out of the soil so it’s time for some hard manual work. So haul out your boots, garden gloves and a few tools and prepare to set the stage for a new, more beautiful yard this year.

(These were the only gloves I found this morning that had no holes in them.  I guess it's time to invest in some new ones!)

Look around your yard.  Is it overwhelming?  Maybe, but look at it this way, if you get out there you won’t have to spend your day riding a stupid exercise bike that goes nowhere next to a lot of other people doing the same thing. (Do you know how I feel about going to the gym, now?)

If you have dogs, you might be looking at a mine field about now. So get out your shovel or spades and some garbage bags and get it cleaned up ASAP.  The longer that refuse sits on your grass the more damage you’re going to have to repair.

If there are still frozen snow piles any where see if you can break them down and spread them out.  If they are left to melt on their own they can breed snow mold which looks kind of pink and fuzzy and it will kill the grass. If you find any, get out your hose and spray it down well. If you get to it soon enough it might not cause damage.

We’ve had a lot of wind lately.  So you may be looking at a lot of twigs and branches everywhere.  There might be garbage too that has blown in over the winter and is stuck under foundation bushes and perhaps piles of wet leaves stuck in all the corners of your yard. 

So bundle up the kids, give them each a garbage bag and have a scavenger hunt to see who can collect the most garbage.  If you don’t have any child labor to help you, it’s still a satisfying task to do it yourself.  Later when you go inside and look out your windows, you are going to be so proud of yourself.

Back to those wet leaves though.  Use a leaf rake and gently pull them off your garden.  If they are still in tack try to chop them up some and then rework a few or them into the soil or add them to your compost pile if you have one.

If you’ve been feeding the birds all winter, you probably have a large pile of seeds and shells beneath your feeder.  Rake those up, too.  What isn’t rotten could still germinate in your yard and safflower and niger seed don’t make for an exceptionally nice lawn.

As soon as you can walk in your garden without sinking into the mud, start weeding.  Now is the perfect time, when the ground is soft and weeds are easy to see; to pull out grass and dandelions that have seeded themselves close to your perennial crowns.

If you have any perennials that you know to be invasive, start watching them closely and vigorously weed out plants that have sprung up miles from the mother plant.  I have a native blue bellflower that I just love, but it’s not the only plant I want in the garden.  It grows from underground rhizomes as does lily of the valley.  I have put a sunken strip of metal around it to try to contain it.  It doesn’t work completely though because the roots are so deep, but it helps me to ruthlessly pull up anything that pops up outside of that boundary.

This method will work for a few years, but eventually you’ll want to dig up the whole plant and reduced it again to a manageable size-or if it’s not an absolute favorite –pitch it completely for something else that grows slower and is not so invasive.

If you are not a gardener by nature or perhaps you’ve just moved to a property with some overgrown bushes you might suddenly be staring at a large overgrown shapeless bush. There are two ways to attack it. The first way is to drastically cut it back all the way to the ground and then let it start over. It won’t flower this year, but depending on how over grown it was maybe it’s not flowering well anyway.  It will send up new shoots almost immediately. Then trim it regularly to attain and maintain an attractive shape.

The second method is slower, taking three years to complete. The strategy is to remove about a third of the biggest, oldest branches and then trim to shape.  Repeat the process in the following two years.

If you are planting new bushes and you do this in the first three years of planting you can often slow the growth of your bush so that it will maintain an attractive shape for many years.  Hedges, especially non flowering ones can be sheared now, too, and trees with low hanging limbs can be trimmed now while they are still dormant.

If you don’t have a lot of self seeding plants, now would be a good time to amend the soil in your garden by digging in dried, aged manure or mulch and add a slow release fertilizer at the same time.  Be careful not to damage the roots of your existing perennials, but if you stay within the top three to four inches of soil it shouldn’t be much of a problem.

If you’ve never kept a journal, this might be the year you’d like to start.  As I’ve said before, I’m not a trained gardener.  Everything I’ve learned has been through trial and error and keeping a journal is a great way to record what works, what doesn’t and is fun to look at next year so you’ll know exactly when things bloom in your garden and where you planted stuff and notes of what you want to do next time.

Take pictures!  Add them to your journal and then use them to record the progress of your plants or to help you learn and remember the names, and habits of your flowers.

I admit I do not remember the names of everything I put in my garden but I continually try and I think it’s important to.  Knowing the names of things makes so many other things a richer experience.  For example if you’re reading a novel and they mention a particular flower and you can picture exactly what it looks like, you are immediately more connected to what you’re reading.  

I have noticed over the years that paying attention to the details of my plants (including their names) has made me more aware of all kinds of details around me and every year I seem to appreciate more and more of the miracle of my surroundings.  Little things that I used to take for granted and never really saw have become a source of daily joy for me and I hope the same experience for you.

I’m not a grass expert, but if you have bare spots in your lawn, early spring is when you want to reseed it.  Grass seed sprouts easily and quickly.  It grows better in cooler weather but it will need to be watered regularly until it’s established.  Planting it now is recommended for those reasons and because you haven’t needed to mow the lawn yet.  By the time you will need to, your new grass might be ready, too. 

Follow the directions carefully on your package of seeds, but before you buy anything determine what kind of grass you’ll need. There are high traffic grasses, grasses that grow well in shade, and a myriad of other grasses that have been developed for a multitude of situations.  If you buy the right kind of grass for your situation, you’ll probably soon be rewarded with a better lawn.

Spring clean up may take you several days, but if you really put your heart into it, the rewards will be a healthier, prettier garden all season long.  I hope I’ve been helpful to you and you’ll come back again to garden with Julie.