We’re sharing the monthly garden maintenance checklists we use to nurture nearly 100 gardens to help you keep on top of maintenance in your own garden.
Now that the spring snow (or as one friend calls it: ‘vanilla mulch’) has melted and temps are on the rise, get out your notebook, gloves and favorite tools. It’s time to get to work!
- Evaluate your garden for winter dieback against your original design intent. This is a great opportunity to ‘shop at home’ when dividing your perennials.
- Start spring annual planting. It’s safe to start pots for early spring season. You can also put some things in beds that have been inside until now like pansies, wallflowers, canary flower, and foxglove. To prepare them we put them in cooler conditions and somewhere brighter than in a greenhouse to harden them off. Bring plants out on cloudy day or in something that protects them for about a week from the direct sun so they can acclimate to sun again. (Can you relate?!?)
- Divide perennials and grasses
- Replace dead shrubs, perennials, and groundcover
- Take back cool overwintered plants like rosemary, rose standards, and boxwoods that were kept in pots.
- Shape and thin boxwoods and yews. In spring, you can cut the ‘clubheads’ out of old growth which allows new growth to come from inside for more vigorous growth.
- Finish uncovering roses and prune for dead and shape. If you see damage to graft unions in your roses, try protecting them next year with soil or soil compost mix to shield from frost.
- Remove deer netting, snow fencing, and tree wrap
- Check ties on espaliers and trees to make sure they aren’t choking the plant.
- Lift sunken stone in pathways
- Edge beds as needed
- Clean and fill water features
- Fertilize rhododendrons, azaleas, and any other ericaceous (acid loving) plants with Holly-tone every 4-6 weeks to lower their PH.
- Sulfur Endless Summer hydrangeas for blue flowers
- Start fertilizing roses
- Fertilize spring pots every other week
- Start spraying gardens and especially tulips for deer with Liquid Fence
- Spray boxwoods when flowering for boxwood psyllid
- Assess bulb displays, take photos, and make notes for next year’s order.
- Check irrigation for breaks or leaks in need of repair
- Begin garden renovation projects
- Get to your winter weeds before they flower, re-seed, and give you a headache.
