The Arrival of Spring
Spring has arrived in Malibu, a little early but who is complaining! Now is the time to get a jump start on creating your best garden ever! Early spring can easily get away from you but with the clocks springing forward we now have an extra hour to attend to the necessary tasks that need to be done. Below are seven essential spring gardening tasks to begin now.
Seven Essential Spring Gardening Tasks
1) Inspect your garden
Take a turn around your garden looking for damage done over the winter. Damaged plants, broken branches, beds that need to be tidied up.
Look at your structures such as trellises, garden sheds, fences, and walls, note what needs repairing. Check for rodent burrows and damage. Buy non-rodenticide remedies to address the new visitors or call an expert to get rid of them in a humane manner.
2) Hardscaping first
While the ground is still warming up, take care of the hardscaping which means repairing fences and walls, stepping stones which have lifted. Clean out your gutters, window boxes, and raised beds. This is also the best time to start planning for and building raised garden beds, As it gets a bit warmer a fresh coat of paint, sealant or stain on anything made of wood will instantly refresh the look of your garden or patio.
2) Spring clean
Before daffodils, tulips or any spring bulbs start surfacing, clean up the debris that has accumulated over the last few months. Molding leaves, fallen twigs and branches, last year's perennial foliage, and any annuals you did not remove in the autumn. A clean garden reduces the infestation of pests and keeps diseases at bay. If you have a container garden, use a 1 part bleach to 5 parts water solution to take care of any lingering insect eggs or diseases in your containers.
3) Feed your soil
Over the winter, the rain, snow, and subsequent runoff will have depleted your soil's nutrients. It will need a good dose of fresh nutrients. Top dress the soil with an inch or two of compost, humus or manure in early spring. This is also a good time to sprinkle granules of slow-release plant feed around your rose bushes and flowering shrubs. Fruit trees, citrus trees, and avocado trees can be fed now as well. Earthworms and other insects will help to work these materials into the soil for you.
4) Pruning
Make sure you have a sharp pair of pruning shears and start pruning out any broken or damaged branches on trees and shrubs. Remove the deadwood that you will find within rose bushes and other ornamental shrubs. Flowering shrubs that bloom at the new year's growth can be trimmed in the spring. These include butterfly bush, smooth hydrangea, roses. Fresh flower buds will appear on the new growth that appears after you have pruned it. This is also a great time to shear back hedges and evergreens.
5) Divide perennials
This is my favorite task as it allows you to expand your garden landscape without extra expense. In most cases, it is best to divide and move perennials in the opposite season of when they bloom, so now is the time to move summer and fall-blooming perennials. Look around the garden and any plant that has outgrown its space or simply become too large is ripe for division. To accomplish this, simply dig the plant out of the ground, take two garden forks and push them into the center of the plant back to back and pushing outward, divide the clump. Replace the original plant into the hole from which it was dug and find a new spot within your garden for its offspring. If you move them while they have yet to flower, there will be less stress on the plants and they will reward you with a rejuvenated parent plant and a vigorous new plant. Doing this on a yearly basis saves a ton of money from buying new potted plants from the garden center. Always water in with a solution of B12 - a capful to a gallon of water, this will help the roots establish quickly.
6) Establish support and trellis
Before your plants kick into their more vigorous growing stage, early spring is a good time to position stakes, frames or trellises for your plants. Once the garden gets going it can be tricky wrangling your plant into or onto its support apparatus.
7) Spring container garden
Though most annual flowers need the soil to have warmed up with the danger of frost past, some flowers that don't mind cool weather can be planted now. These include african daisies, pansies, lobelia and sweet alyssum. For most others, it is best to wait until all danger of frost has passed. If a surprise late frost is forecast, simply cover your container flowers with muslin or other fine fabric and they will survive. Try grouping your containers together in groups of three for a stunning focal point! Or position a container either side of your doorway for a fresh spring welcome when you or guests arrive at your front door.
Tiki Hut Inspiration
Before:
After:
Once all your tasks are completed, use your imagination and look at neglected areas of your garden, an overgrown corner may be just the place to create a space for meditation, a children's fairy garden, a place to sit and sip tea, coffee or wine as you admire your hard work. In our case, the only idea that got my husband swinging a hammer was the idea of a tiki hut! I cleared all the overgrowth myself early last spring, and eventually we finished the hut much to the enjoyment and amusement of our family and friends! Here are the before and after of the forgotten corner complete with one of our glass Lily Flower fountains.
I hope you have been inspired to get out in the fresh air and a headstart on what will be your best garden ever. What is good for your garden is good for your soul!