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 [...]
1.Make Cut Backs Stems and stalks of perennials like sedum, coneflower and phlox look wonderful growing through drifts of snow, but let’s face it, they’ve served their purpose, and as the world around them starts to turn green, their unsightly brown clumps should be chopped to the ground. Also remove the dead leaves of coral bells, [...]
If you haven’t been keeping up with my Tweets, you might well ask: Who on earth is Matthew Wilson and why the heck should I care about his star plant picks for small gardens? Well, firstly, he lives up to his nickname of Heathcliff of the Hedgerows (although the debate rages about whether he’s more [...]
Geared to city gardeners, Lorraine Johnson’s City Farmer: Adventures in Urban Food Growing will be available in April, 2010 — just in time to start sowing! Wanna know more? Read what Greystone publishers have to say about it.
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