Get our RSS Feed
Monday March 23rd, 2009
Heronswood Spring Tips
Our research gardener, William Rein, provides these timely March tips.
Helping bring the garden back to life in early spring garden preparation:
| • | Don’t jump the gun – March is a tricky month. As soon as it feels like spring, the next day or next week it can feel like winter! (In fact, this year it seemed spring was really taking hold early – until March 20, the official first day of this season of promise when, in the predawn hours, I noticed big white flakes of snow were falling outside my kitchen window here in Bucks County, Pa.! And they are predicting below-freezing mornings for the next several days. Typical “early spring.”) |
| • | Carefully remove excess leaf litter that has fallen or blown into the beds and accumulated around the perennials. Ideally, these leaves can be ground up and reapplied as mulch. Emphasis is on excess leaf removal – it is not imperative to rake beds completely clean or you will lose all the nutrient and protective value in the free leaf mulch! I know you feel like you need to do something outside but please, back away from the urge to treat your garden like it is a hospital ward or as if you are worried Aunt Betsy will stop by and give it the white glove test. |
| • | Re-settle any perennial clumps that have been heaved above the soil line due to the freeze-and-thaw cycle. Make sure they are set back into the soil at the original level. The most recently-planted perennials – those planted last fall – are most likely to require this kind of help. |
| • | Any signs of life? Look at the crown of the plant for small green or reddish buds near the soil line. Don’t worry if you cannot see anything in the first two weeks of spring. These buds are not always visible until spring is fully underway a few weeks later. Cut back any overwintered stalks to within two or three inches of ground; be careful with more tender perennials (especially those borderline hardy to your USDA zone) that might be left susceptible to late frosts – they should be left alone until spring is well underway in April. |
| • | Cut off overwintered old leaves. If the perennial is prone to foliar diseases like powdery mildew and botrytis (e.g. peonies), the foliage should be placed in the trash (or composted in a really “hot” compost pile, where the disease spores can be killed). Old hybrid peonies and garden phlox are among the most mildew-prone perennials and their leaves and stems should be removed and disposed of in the trash before the onset of winter. |
| • | Old woody stalks of taller or lanky perennials like the asters, Solidago (goldenrods), Helianthus, and Actaea (bugbanes) can be cut up and used as mulch around the plants in the garden. |
| • | “Heavy feeders” (e.g. peonies) and bulbs will benefit from a complete fertilizer (with a ratio like 5-10-5, or Espoma Bulb-Tone) scratched into the soil around the root zone of the plant as they emerge from dormancy. Use fertilizers according to directions. I encourage the use of organically-based fertilizers since they “feed the soil” by enhancing microbial health and are less likely to burn roots, therefore sustaining the plants in the long run. Most woodland perennials (e.g. Arisaema, Polygonatum, Disporum) do not need yearly fertilizer supplements if they have been planted in soil that had been well-prepared before planting or at planting. Best to feed them each year by mulching around them with leaf mold (ground up or composted leaf litter). |
| —William Rein |
This entry was posted
on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 7:20 pm and is filed under Original Posts.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Your spring tips are obviously quite timely, and I am guilty of perhaps jumping the gun a bit on spring gardening. I live in Portland, Oregon, zone 8, kind of 7 sometimes. I was told at my fave neighborhood nursery to go ahead and plant dahlias a couple of weeks ago, which I have never grown. In the meantime, it has gotten below freezing a couple of nights, rained a lot, ground is soaked, and temp gets up to a maximum of 50 or so during the day. Are my dahlias going to rot, or do you think they are just waiting for better days?
What great sage advice. I was thrilled to get out in my garden on a warm day last week to clear out the leaf litter, but wisely limited it to the area around the recently emerged snowdrops. While I was itching to do more, I have been around enough Wisconsin springs to remember how many cold days follow the one or two warm March days.
Thank you for the other great spring tips.
Thank you for a nice summary of early spring chores. I have often been confused about how to deal with old leaves and this is a balanced approach.
I am so glad to hear that someone else uses leaves and dead plant stems around their beds. I always called myself a lazy gardener. I never pick up leaves or clippings! My soil is very rich because of it,ton s of busy earthworms and other good guys. I believe it called “cold composting”. Organic gardening is a lot of work but this step saves me time. Thank you!
HI, I LOVE YOUR ARTICLES, THEY ARE VERY HELPFUL. I LIVE IN NY STATE AND KNOW ALL ABOUT MARCH, APRIL AND SOMETIMES IN MAY, WE MAY GET A FREEZE SOME NIGHTS. ONE CAN COUNT ON THAT FACT. ENJOY YOUR WEBSITE VERY MUCH. THANKS, SHIRLEY
Thanks! your e-mail news is like taking a gardening class every day, lately.
I never knew one could fertilize bulbs and some heavy feeders this early, but then it makes sense!
I’m sure this is sage advice for northeners, but useless here on the west coast of Florida! Thanks anyway!
I just began getting the Heronswood newsletters, and I am enjoying them very much. Thanks for the Spring reminders!
You caught me!! How did you know my hands were covered in dirt this morning? I couldn’t help but weed!
I’m just south of Portland, OR too! In response to the above question, the recommended time to plant is actually in mid April- May. You’ll probably be fine though, I’m hoping our really hard freezes are done. I’ve even left mine out over the whole winter before which is not recommended! Godd luck, hope they live!
I’ve lived through 21 zone 5 winters and know from experience not to jump the gun. The only excitement I get from gardening at this time is starting seeds indoors. What happens outside goes mostly unnoticed till late April/early May.
What, exactly, is a “research gardener?”
Thanks for excellent & timely advise. Of course, I’ve already violated the rule on clean up but will definitely hold back in the rest of the garden.
Fertilize Peonies, really? I thought it was taboo to feed peonies and that if you did, they would curl up and wither away. Perhaps I will try giving them a small dose of fertilizer this year!
Kind of nice to see some “northern” exposure on your site. Too often anything I watch on say…H and G garden shows, ie Curb Appeal is in say, California, Florida etc and really depresses my garden tendencies up this way. Thank you…
Thanks for all the great tips. It is always nice to review dos and don’ts this time of year.
Thank you for the reminders. This is my favorite time of year so I get a little anxious to get out in the garden. I have been using leaf mulch on my beds for years now and my soil is so rich and healthy, lots of big fat earth worms The plants in my beds do great.
We have to wait until early May in Centrtal PA to be sure a freeze doesn’t sneak up on us.
HAPPY GARDENING EVERYONE!
How do you get rid of powdery mildew on honeysuckle ?
Thank You
I love all your gardening tips. They’re very informative and helpful to me as a perennial gardner newbie. I’ve always planted bulbs and annuals but I’m getting so much pleasue out of my perennials. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Mary Munizza, Falls Township, PA
I live in SW Michigan and have visited Herronswood Garden and Washington State several times and it always amazes me that someplace that looks so dreary and rainy (I do mean Washington) can have such a milder climate that SW Michigan. And I wholeheartedly agree that it is nice to read comments from gardeners who don’t live in tropical climates. i don’t think that they can understand the challenges of gardening someplace that has sonw on the ground for Easter!!!