Early Work in the Spring Garden

“Work in the Spring Garden” is the title of a class I just taught last week at New England Botanic Garden @ Tower Hill.  We discussed several important topics that need to be considered as we get out into the garden in the Spring. Also, check out the Home Gardener Series that we have created at NEBG.  It is an 11 class/workshop series throughout the year covering a range of gardening topics.

1. Soil Testing – One of the most important tasks to perform in your garden and lawn.  pH, nutrients and organic matter are critical to understand to have plants that thrive. The website explains how to  collect the sample and fill out the paperwork.  The results even tell you exactly what to do to match the plants in your beds. While it might cost $26 per sample for the basic test (including organic matter), I guarantee it will save you far more money than it costs. Do your test now, before they get busy in the season when it can take a month to get results. UMass Soil Test
2. Fertilization – Now is the best time to feed your plants, if your soil test says your soil is deficient in a specific nutrient. It’s like carbo loading before the marathon, plants need the nutrients before they put out their big spring growth.  It doesn’t help your marathon results to eat at the end of the race. I love the organic products from Espoma. Their site is very informative on all the products they provide for macro and micro nutrients.
3. Transplanting and Division – Spring is the best time to edit your garden by moving plants and dividing perennials. We want to move our woody shrubs as their buds are swelling and they have lots of energy to spend. They will then have plenty of time to establish before the weather gets hot.  Dividing perennials is the best way to expand your garden, rejuvenate overgrown plants, and trade with fellow gardeners. Most perennials prefer Spring division, when they have the most stored energy. This list from the University of Minnesota is a great starting point for knowing how and how often to divide. You will feel like a god when you succeed at dividing and creating new plants.
4. Weed Management – Weeding is not just work for the summer.  Weeds come out at all times of the year and need constant management to break the cycle.  If we let them go early in the year they will expand and go to seed for next season.  Get a Weed Hoe and chop them down without getting on your knees.  Check out this UMass fact sheet on weed life cycles.
5. Mulch – This can be the best and worst practice in the garden.  Adding a good quality mulch, like MadMics Mulch, at a depth of 1-3″ every year will improve the quality of your soil and the health of your plants.  The worst mulching practice is to add too much or to use fake, dyed mulch, which has become so prevalent with local distributors and landscapers. Demand natural, non-dyed mulch, and preferably MadMics.
6. Pruning – We need to be selective in the pruning we are doing at this point in the year.  It is always good to prune out deadwood, diseased wood or damaged branches from Winter.  We can prune ‘New Wood’ flowering plants that flower later in the year, like Paniculate Hydrangeas, Rose of Sharon, but we need to keep our hands off Spring flowering plants that already have their flower buds set, whether we can see them or not.  The exception is if we are renovating plants and are willing to sacrifice a season of flowers. Topic for the next newsletter.
7. Protecting Pollinators and Insects – In recent years, attention has been brought to how home gardeners can help our pollinator and insect populations.  Insects, bees, moths and others spend their winter in leaves, soil and stems of plants.  If we clean up our leaves and cut down our plants in the fall, then they must find other locations away from our gardens to overwinter. You might want to consider leaving leaves in you garden to support this important part of the garden cycle.  I also employ a hybrid model and do clean some special beds or perennial borders that have early season interest, but leaving 12″ stems on plants can be a tremendous value for many insects.  Check out the Xerces Society, they provide immense amount of information on this topic.

Hopefully this gives you some idea for work to do before the season really gets going. Soil testing, fertilization and getting out the weed hoe can be a great start.