February 2008

Here’s MY version of How to Get Your Garden Ready for Spring, the very important subject that so many garden writers and speakers are opining on this time of year.   It’s my March column for the alternative  paper I write for. 

Here’s what most homeowners do.  They wait until it’s already warm and colorful outdoors before noticing that their yards look like crap and wondering what they can do to change that sad fact.  And what’s even sadder is that by then, usually late April or May, they’ve already missed the best time to get their gardens ready for the season, so here’s what you should be doing in March, okay?  Early April at the absolute latest!  (Late February would have been even better, so remember than next year.)
 

CLEAN-UP
Now there’s lots of controversy (who knew?) about whether it’s best to remove leaves from beds and borders in the fall or leave them there until spring, with some sources even recommending raking all your leaves into your beds for the winter.  Here’s what I say: it depends.   Some leaves are large enough to form a crust that keeps water from getting to the soil, especially in quantity.  So in yards with lots of oaks I suggest chopping them first (using a mulching mower or shredder/chopper), which turns them into a dandy mulch for your borders.  I’ve tried that myself and find it way too time-consuming, given the quantity of leaves on my property, so I gather and compost most leaves in the fall, then do final clean-up in late winter or early spring.  That means now, if you haven’t done it already.

Basic spring clean-up means:

• Removing all the leaves.  Even if you did this in the fall, more have probably blown your way.
• Cutting off the ratty- looking foliage of perennials that are aboveground.   
• Digging out all the weeds you can see.
• Cutting back vines that are where you don’t want them.
• Cutting back ornamental grasses, including liriope, and the dead stems of perennials if you left them up for the winter (which is a good idea, for wildlife) to a few inches high.
• Using a cultivator or gloved hand to loosen the mulch, acorns and other dried plant matter covering the ground around your shrubs and perennials.  This allows water and air to more easily penetrate to the roots.
   

Why do all that now, so early?  Because if you have spring-blooming bulbs or perennials that emerge early in your borders, they could be trampled on if this clean-up is done after they’ve emerged..  Or worse, if you wait til your garden has started producing masses of new growth, you won’t be able to see those weeds and out-of-control vines.  Weeding now will reduce your weeding burden throughout the entire season.

MULCH
Applying organic mulch on top of your garden is the single most important thing you can do for your garden every year, bar none.  That’s because it prevents weeds, regulates soil temperature, and retains moisture.  Plus,  as it decomposes over the course of the season and is carried underground by earthworms and other creatures of the soil, it improves soil structure, which means better drainage and better use of nutrients.  In my garden organic mulch is the only form of fertilizer I use, though most gardens and all new ones benefit from a one-inch application of compost in the spring, also. (Certain plants – edibles, annuals, and anything in pots – still need fertilizer no matter what).  And as mulches go, nothing’s better than good old Takoma Park leafmold mulch because it decomposes over the course of one season, which is a good thing because it improves your soil.  The more attractive mulches like bark and hardwood chips aren’t as helpful because they last a long time, which is a bad thing.  Like weeding and leaf removal, mulching is a job that’s easier to do before new bulbs and perennials have emerged, especially if they’ve just popped up and are hard to see.
                   
GOT PLACES TO STEP?
One frequently heard caveat about spring work in the garden is that if you tromp all over your beds and borders when the ground is super-saturated from spring rains, you’ll cause soil compaction, a very bad thing for the future health of your plants.  So providing places to step in the garden is essential if you want to, for example, pull weeds when it’s easy to do because the soil is so wet. So this month when you’re cleaning out those borders why not strategically place small fieldstones or pavers where your feet need to be placed in order to reach your plants.  This one-time chore will help you stay in control of your garden (by weeding and pruning back as needed) throughout the season.  Without safe places to step, it’s best to test the soil before walking on it by grabbing a handful of soil and firming it into a ball, then dropping it.  If it stays in a ball, the soil is too wet to dig in or walk on.  If it crumbles, it’s okay to walk on.

LAWN CARE
Another area of disagreement is whether or not to feed your lawn in the spring.  Many sources recommend against spring feeding because it encourages top growth at the expense of root growth, promotes weeds, leads to extra mowing and, with spring rains, causes nutrient run-off into our waterways.  Yet some experts in organic gardening say it’s only synthetic or fast-acting fertilizers that cause water pollution, not organic, slow-release fertilizers like Lawn Restore or Safer.  So if you forgot to feed your lawn last fall and it really needs it, go ahead but give our rivers a break and use an organic one.

If your lawn is sunny and has a history of crabgrass, corn gluten is an effective organic preemergent weed killer, applied when the forsythia are blooming (or, according to other experts, when forsythia blooms are dropping). As an added bonus, corn gluten contains a small amount of nitrogen (10 percent by weight), so it helps to "green-up" your lawn in a safe, organic way.  Remember to always follow the instructions.

Fall is the best time of year for planting grass seed but bare spots can be seeded in March, which gives them time to germinate and get established before it gets hot..  Just don’t seed at the same time you’re applying fertilizer or corn gluten.

PRUNING
Late March/early April is a great time to prune trees and shrubs that have dropped their leaves because you can see what you’re doing.  Also, because they’re dormant, they won’t respond by sprouting new growth that could be killed by cold spells. 
    -Remove broken branches.  Bleeding sap doesn’t hurt them, so don’t worry about it.
    -Remove bagworm bags now.  Destroy them or throw them away; don’t just leave them on the ground.
    – March is a good time to prune butterfly bushes, spireas, caryopteris, forsythias and crape myrtles – if needed or desired.  The detailed how-to’s won’t fit in this column, so just Google "prune" and the name of the shrub type to find out whether yours really needs pruning and if so, how to do it.

NEW PLANTS
Buy and plant shrubs and perennials as soon as they’re available in the garden centers – the sooner the better.  It gives them more time to get their roots established before the heat which is much more of a killer than winter cold.   Be careful not to disturb still-dormant perennials, though, so if you’re not sure where things are, wait.

BULB CARE AND DESIGN
Make notes now about where you want to plant bulbs next fall.  Draw little diagrams to guide you.  Otherwise there’s no way you’ll know where to plant them when the time comes.

Okay, now get out there and get your hands dirty!

Extras for this online version:  links to lots more information about mulch, and lawn care.

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Like many of us, nurseryman John Peter Thompson grew up gardening, but in his case in a family of nurserymen.  His German grandfather, in fact, started the premier indie nursery in the Mid-Atlantic area, Behnkes, my main hunting ground for plants these last 30+ years.  So when he gives a free talk about What to Do in the Garden NOW for customers at their Beltsville, Maryland location, I’m there. 

PHILOSOPHY

In gardening, like in cooking, the secret of success is getting ready., and late winter is THE TIME  And to reduce the intimidation factor, he offers this: "What doesn’t work is a learning experience." Amen.  And I particularly like this one: "Get the life back in your soil, so you can spend your money on PLANTS, not products." 

WHAT TO DO NOW (or last week) IN THE GARDEN  

Clean Up Beds

• Remove what’s dead and what you don’t want.  And if you don’t do ANYTHING else, remove all the weeds.  "You’ll pay in time if you don’t weed now."  And even if you wanted to do it chemically you’d be wasting your time and money because it’s too cold to use them.  Gotta do it with tools.
• Remove leaves from beds, too, especially disease-prone leaves of hybrid teas (which you should NOT compost.)
• Scratch beds with side of garden rake or with a "scratcher," what I call a cultivator.

Mulch

• He applies mulch on top of the leaves he left in his flower beds and borders to decompose the previous fall.  (Though in poorly draining sites or on top of plants that hate being soggy – like lavender – he recommends chopping the leaves first.) 
• What kind of mulch? He likes shredded pine because it’s a softwood, though most customers seem to prefer shredded hardwood mulches because they look good and last longer. 
• When?  He mulches in mid-March, then Memorial Day and again in either September or October, no more than 1/4 to 1/2 inch at a time, for a total of 1-2 inches a year.  (Yikes!)

Prune

• Prune deciduous trees now.  Even spring-flowering ones can stand to have their crossing branches removed now (so what if you remove a few flower buds if they’re where you don’t want them, right?)

Weed Prevention

• Corn gluten is a safe organic product that not only prevents the germination of weed seeds (actually, any seeds) but even contributes  some nitrogen. Just apply it when the forsythia are mid-peak or dropping, and at least 60 days before applying seeds of any type.   The Cockadoodle Doo brand is a good one.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE  

The essential, must-have tools are: 

• A spade.
• #2 Felco pruners.
• The hoe he declares to be  a ""weapon of mass destruction," especially in the spring.  So don’ use it now.
• When he first saw a lime green trowel he declared: "You gotta be kidding" and  "dumbest thing I’ve ever seen."  But he’s tried it and likes it.  (Now if I can just find a photo!)
• Buy washers for your hose.  Breakers or "roses" are great, too, because they change a hard spray to a gentle stream, either directly from the hose or at the end of an extension wand.  And invest (about $5) in a shut-off attachment for the business end of your garden hose – one that’s all metal, not plastic.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

• Landscape fabric as a weed barrier, covered with mulch, is "a pain."
• 90 percent of the biotic mass in our gardens is IN the soil, so get it tested, and not using one of those DIY kits.  Send to a soil lab.
• The use of beneficial microorganisms is a new and confusing issue in the industry.  Compost tea may help restore microbes to soils damaged by chemicals or compaction.  After applying microbes for one season, simple use of compost every year should be enough.
• To protect your garden from deer he suggests 1) throwing garlic powder about the garden after every rain or 2) growing a hedgerow of "deer buffet" plants like crabapple or euonymus that deer love but can’t kill.
• "Growing vegetables is really easy!"  Especially turnips (which taste NOTHING like the yucky store-bought ones), beets, green onions, radishes, and potatoes.
• Expandable peat pots are great for gardening projects with kids.
• Add compost to your garden every year and you won’t have to use any other fertilizer (except for annuals, vegetables and container plantings, of course).

And just so you’re sufficiently impressed, the name John Peter Thompson is known even outside the nursery world as a national expert on matters of native and invasive plants.  For example, he’s working hard as a member of the technical advisory committee to the Sustainable Sites Initiative (that’s where the real work happens) and from what I can tell from the initial report, he’s doing a great job representing the folks who have to implement the new guidelines. 

And here’s John Peter’s full bio from his blog:  Secretary National Invasive Species Council Advisory Committee; Chair, Prince George’s County Chamber of Commerce; Vice Chair Prince George’s County Historic Preservation Commission; Trustee, Prince George’s County Memorial Library System; Member, Maryland Invasive Species Council; LBJ Wild Flower Center Sustainable Landscape Standards Vegetative Sub-Comm,; Chesapeake Conservation Landscape Council; Landscape Comm, Chesapeake EcoTour Project; Past President, Maryland Nursery & Landscape Association (MNLA) and Mid Atlantic Exotic Pest Plant Council (MA-EPPC); Member PlantWise Advisory Comm.; President, National Agricultural Research Alliance – Beltsville; Chairman, The Behnke Nurseries Co.]

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