Gardening in the Spring

Gardening in the Spring

I love flowers and cannot wait for warmer weather! Here are some ideas to get the garden ready. As you prepare your garden for spring, it is good to rake up all the leaves and cut back any perennials that need to be dead-headed. This makes way for new growth and gets sunshine to the base of the plants. We just raked up 18 bags of leaves. Glad we had help! Check out Spring Fling for other ideas for spring.

I use a stand for my peonies to help support them when they get tall and spindly. If you have a peony that hasn’t bloomed you may want to move it to a sunnier spot. I have 3 azaleas in the front yard (northern exposure) that are not doing well at all. I may have to find a sunny spot for them.

Before and after!

Peony

Last year we dug up many of our irises and divided them and replanted some of them. We must have had about 50 left over…I gave away some…but I still have some in the garage…they are purple and white, below. I look forward to seeing how they come back this year.

Clematis are tricky to grow bc you have to protect the root system with a ground cover. Also if you don’t cut them back, you will get new growth from all the old growth.

Before and after!

I brought my mandavilla (below) inside

and hibiscus (below) in for the winter.

It will be fun to see them bounce back. (saved about $30 each) I also brought in some geraniums in flower boxes in the garage. I’m waiting to see if they will survive or I’ll have to buy new ones. 7 –plants @ $4 a plant adds up…

We have already put down lime and halts on the grass to adjust the PH and to prevent crab grass. In the northeast zone we can’t put out annuals until May 15^th…but until then I will be looking forward to crocuses, daffodils, hyacinths and tulips.

I love to garden. Soon I will buy some new garden gloves, some Miracle Grow and Plant-tone. I also purchase vegetables and herbs. This year I want to grow tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, Romaine, zucchini and yellow squash. A tip -we use newspaper and grass clipping on top for a ground cover around our vegetables to prevent weeds from growing up.

We also keep a Compost bin. We combine grass clippings, leaves, some dirt, compost starter fertilizer and water. It makes great nutritious decomposed matter for the garden. You can also add egg shells, coffee grounds and vegetable scraps. I also use Preen in the summer to cut back on weeds, but don't use near vegetables.

I start morning glories by seed. You need to nip the seed with a sharp knife and then soak the seeds in water overnight...they are tricky..sometimes I get 4 plants out of 50 seeds but it only takes that many to cover our fence!

Before and after!

Then before we know it Memorial Day will be upon us and it will be time to open the pool! Our local garden center is a great place to get your questions answered. I like supporting the local growers. Home Depot & Lowes are great, but we don’t want our small “Mom &Pops” to go out of business.

I am linking up to Spring Fling so check out all the great ideas for spring @ Spring Fling

Also here is my latest centerpiece for our trestle table. Dried lavender that smells lovely with a glass of red wine!

Cheers! Well happy gardening! Jennifer aka Gigi

PS Next week I’ll be posting some of our favorite Easter foods. Hint: Pepperoni Bread, Pineapple Stuffing, Baked Rigatoni & Cheese & Braided Easter Egg Bread!