I am sitting at our kitchen table staring out at my messy winter garden. I left it that way for the birds and other critters to have food and hiding places through the winter.
As the days warm up, finally, our thoughts are turning to spring cleaning. This is a perfect time to get your gardens ready for summer blooms and harvest.
First things first. Put on your inspector’s hat and head out to your garden with a notepad. It is time to see what happened in the garden while you were hiding indoors for the winter. Take note of:
- Cold, ice or snow damage on your plants
- Garden beds that need to be cleaned out, leaves removed
- Walls, fences, benches, sheds, trellises that have been damaged through the winter
- Evidence of new animal burrows from skunks, rats or mice.
Gazing out my window I see that a couple of our fence panels have fallen out. We want to tackle fixing that before the plants start to grow.
Soil can sink due to heavy snow and winter rains. This is the time to level out stepping stones and repair damaged retaining walls. Also check your gutters and clean out leaves and debris.
Spring is the time to plan for and build new raised garden beds, repair existing ones and tidy up your garden edging. When temperatures are warmer, add a fresh coat of paint or stain to any of your hardscape elements made of wood. Hubby and I are painting some old birdhouses this spring.
We are now removing all of the leaf mulch we placed on our gardens in the fall and cutting down last year’s perennial foliage. The leaf mulch will be kept for our garden beds in the fall. We are removing the pesky weeds, snails and slugs from our garden to get ahead of the game. It is important to maintain good hygiene in your garden beds to keep away pests and disease.
Spring is a good time to prune some types of woody shrubs and trees. Be very careful about what you prune because you lose spring and summer blossoms or damage your plant with improper pruning. Start by pruning out any broken, damaged or dead wood.
The general rule around pruning flowering shrubs that bloom on new wood (this year’s growth) can be pruned in the spring. Summer flowering shrubs like butterfly bush, smooth hydrangea (H. arborescens), panicle hydrangea (H. paniculata), potentilla, rose of Sharon and roses.
This is also a good time to shear back evergreens like boxwood and arborvitae (coniferous trees in the cypress family).
Do not prune early flowering shrubs and those that bloom on old wood (last year’s stems) like azalea, rhododendrons, forsythia, lilac, quince, ninebark and weigela in the spring. Make sure to add a layer of mulch (sea soil would be excellent) around the base of your rhododendrons and azaleas as soon as possible.
We have large clumps of summer and fall blooming perennials flowers just peeking their heads out of the soil. This is an excellent time to divide and transplant into other locations of your garden beds. If you move the plants when they are dormant, there will be less stress on them and they will be more likely to spring back into action quickly.
And finally, go beyond your property in your spring cleaning endeavours. The recent heavy snows have left bits of garbage on boulevards and streets. Get out and clean up your neighbourhood. You might even start something with other neighbours joining in.
Lynda Pasacreta is the current president of the Richmond Garden Club. Join her at the Garden Club meeting, Wednesday, March 27th, 7pm, Richmond Cultural Centre, 7700 Minoru Boulevard to hear Amanda Jarrett’s presentation on creating healthy soil for your gardens and the use of fertilizers and mulch. Visit richmondgardenclub.ca for more information.
