As the Garden Grows

What's blooming today?


You are here: Home / Archives for In The Garden / Spring Tasks

Working in the garden – Spring cleaning

by

Well I managed to finally get out into the Garden on Sunday. It was a lovely day and it was high time that I got out there to tidy up my garden and begin pruning the roses.

Last Autumn I didn’t even manage to put my garden to bed. By this I mean I didn’t do the usual winter protection. I was just too ill. So I’d have to say that I really haven’t done much in my garden at all since perhaps last September and at that time it was mainly only watering the garden.

That’s 7 months of not doing any garden work. Do you know how my body is feeling right now?

I was outside for about five hours. Once I got started I couldn’t make myself stop. Surprisingly I felt pretty good while I was working away. However once I got back inside I began to notice that my back was stiffening up. Now the bottom of my left foot is numb. I guess I must have a pinched nerve in my back! Oh the damage I do to myself when I garden. I tell you – it’s an extreme sport for me.

There are so many plants growing it’s unbelievable! Some are way ahead of themselves. For instance, my daffodils rarely make an appearance before mid-May, yet I have two that are up and blooming and more to come. Some of my supposedly later blooming Tulips are also up and about to bloom. What else was growing well? Strawberry plants, raspberry canes, several clematis, helebores, columbine, monkshood, toad lilies, regular lilies, oriental lilies, several types of tulip, hyacinth, muscari, lavender, Chionodoxa, snow drops, sedum, astilbe, geranium, new york asters, phlox, hostas, trilliums, peonies, rudbeckia, honeysuckle vines and on and on. I’m sure I’ve missed some of the perennials that I saw out there.

I believe that most of the roses will end up surviving. There’s a lot of dead branches but there’s life in the lower areas. Some are quite hardy and are already leaving out at the tips and upper branches. I didn’t survey each rose because I was trying to systematically work my way through the garden one area at a time.

I think I managed to tidy up half of the back garden beds. If my body cooperates I’ll go back outside later today and try to finish up the back. Then I’ll have to do the side of the house, the front garden and boulevard. Oh my … it’s a lot of work!






April Gardening Tips

by

April is here and it’s the ideal time for planting summer vegetables and flowers. Here’s a few April gardening tips for you. Keep in mind that those of you living in cooler zones might delay some of these tasks until May.

Begin planting summer annuals, bulbs and vegetables such as cucumber, melon and zucchini seeds. Transplant the potted tomatoes and peppers that you started earlier in the year towards the end of April or in early May. Gladiolus and Lilies can be planted now too.

If your plants have been frost damaged don’t cut them back just yet. They may look dead but given time the stems and branches may still prove to be alive. Wait until the end of the month watching for new growth or for the stems to green and perhaps you won’t have to prune very much.

Prune spring blooming plants once they have finished flowering. Plants that fall into this category include acacia, forsythia, philadelphus, lilac and viburnum.

April is the perfect month to reseed the lawn. The temperatures are still on the cool side and there’s usually plenty of rain. Apply grass seed over the lawn or in bare patches and then cover with a thin layer of top soil. Water twice a day if it’s not raining regularly. New growth should begin within about two weeks.

April is also the perfect month to apply mulch to your garden beds. Turn old mulch into the soil and apply a new layer that is about three inches thick. Mulch will help to keep the weeds down and will reduce water usage in the hot summer months.

Glorious Annuals

by

Annuals are usually grown to provide color. Since they are only temporary plants in many gardens – if they are always treated as such, they tend to thrive anywhere. Annuals permit gardeners in cold areas to briefly ignore the prospect of inter bleakness and inject a touch of tropical summer color into their gardens.

Annuals are subject to all the normal climatic considerations – wind, salt spray, and summer heat – but they are remarkably resilient plants that carry on flowering under most conditions, except severe cold.

Tender annuals must be planted in spring, after the last frosts, with a view to summer and autumn flowering. However, the so called hardy annuals are often planted in the autumn and left to over-winter for spring flowering. Pansies, Sweet William and Iceland poppies are among the best known hardy annuals. It’s true that the majority of my Pansies (provided they survive the heat of summer), Sweet William (pinks, dianthus) and Iceland poppies often do survive our Canadian zone 6B/ USD zone 5B winters.

With careful planning- depending upon your zone of course, it’s possible to have blooms almost all year round. I tend to have blooms outdoors in my garden from perennials, annuals, bulbs and rhizomes from Mid-March well into November; and indoors my plants such as Thanks Giving and Christmas Cactus, Jasmine and amaryllis give me blooms inside through November to March.

Meta