At this time of year, talk with my fellow gardening pals invariably centres around our favourite gardening subject – soil. I can hear your groans now, and I know you wish I’d stop talking about dirt, but I can’t. And that’s because soil is so important to growing a good garden. There’s absolutely no point [...]
10.Give it an Edge Finish your spring spruce-up by edging flowerbeds. The easiest way is to dig a shallow trench between lawn and border using an edger (a half-moon shaped tool available at hardware stores). It may take time, but the payoff is a garden with a professional edge!
9.Rake it off Raking the lawn is not only a pleasant spring pastime, but it helps remove thatch buildup, which can weaken the roots of turf grass. Rake off the winter mulch from flowerbeds too, so they warm up faster. Reserve the mulch, mix it with compost and reapply as a top dressing in a [...]
8.Clean tools and pots Skip this task if you were good and cleaned, sharpened and oiled your shovels, secateurs and spades last fall. For those of us who put it off till spring, unearth abandoned gardening tools and forsaken containers, and clean them up so they’re ready for another season.
7.Weed, weed, weed Before they get out of hand, control annual weeds that germinate in the spring, such as crabgrass, purslane and lamb’s quarters, and perennial weeds that overwintered, including chickweed and wild mustard. Hand pulling is most satisfying, but there are organic herbicides and all manner of specialty tools available, like this dandelion puller [...]
6.Feed flowering shrubs, trees and vines Although compost makes an ideal spring tonic for plants, to keep them blooming their best, flowering shrubs, trees and vines benefit by a dose of fertilizer too. Apply slow-release fertilizer granules formulated for flowering shrubs and vines such as roses, clematis and rhododendrons – then stand back and watch them [...]
5.Compost Rules! Take only one piece of advice and yours will be the most robust garden in the neighbourhood: Feed the soil to feed your plants. One of the best ways to feed the soil of perennial garden beds is to top-dress them with a layer of compost every spring. Compost adds nutrients to the [...]
4.Plant before the rush Hardy perennials can weather the pre-May 24 weather, so beat the rush to the nursery and select some of the season’s choicest plants as soon as they arrive. Once the ground has thawed and dried out, it’s a good time to plant shrubs and trees too, especially magnolias, birch, oak, yews, rhododendrons [...]
3. Divide and conquer Think back to last season. Did the flowers of your phlox seem a bit smaller than previous seasons? Did the middle of your clump of dianthus brown out? Were the stems of your yarrow so tightly packed that they seemed to be choking the life out of the plant? These are [...]
2.Prune it out Rule one of pruning: if a shrub blooms in spring or early summer, wait to prune until after it blooms. Otherwise, you’ll be nipping the current season’s flowers in the bud! Now is the time to prune late-flowering shrubs such as rose of Sharon, hydrangea (the mop-headed Annabelles can be cut right [...]
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