Early Spring Jobs
or what I've been up to in the garden this week
It’s finally springtime!
I clean up the garden in early spring for several reasons:
🐝 Native bees will nest in dead plant materials.
🐦 Birds can eat the seeds of the dried flower heads.
🐞 I don’t want to disturb any beneficial insect habitats.
🌻I’m tired at the end of gardening season.
So this week, I cut back all that dead plant material. If I composted (which I can’t because of bears) I’d throw it in the compost heap. Currently, I toss it in the woods.
I bring out all the ceramic and terra cotta pots I’ve stored in the shed all winter so they don’t crack. I set all the big ones where I want them to go before I fill them with potting soil. We also secured the clematis spire in the back because it keeps falling over. We’re using the two tree trunks for now as posts for the honeysuckle trellis.
I amend the raised and in-ground beds every spring with Bumper Crop (compost I buy) and mulch, natural (no dyes) hemlock for the ground, and straw for the raised beds. Hemlock will break down over the summer and I might add a little more in the fall. The straw breaks down very quickly, but more importantly, it helps my soil and seeds not blow away if I hose it down—which I forgot to do yesterday as you can see.
We cleared a new area this year for planting, but first we’ll secure black plastic over all that atrocious English ivy to kill it. And we’ve saved some small logs and branches for a native bee hotel we’re making.
The dahlias I stored made it! Some already had new little roots forming, and two had already sprouted a bit of green. So I potted up those, and the new ones I ordered that have arrived so far. They’ll stay in the basement until they sprout, and then I’ll move them into the sunroom for a few days. I treat them like houseplants—they don’t go outside until we have nights consistently in the 50s.
I have a little greenhouse attached to the deck which is just a rack with a plastic cover and a thermometer. Seeds are sprouting! I have to remember to unzip it during the day because yesterday it was 108 degrees in there ☠
Seeds under grow lights are coming along nicely. When there are at least a couple sets of leaves on everything, I’ll move them upstairs into the sunroom until we get those warm nights and then they’ll go outside.
Since we cleared the new area, I could finally paint the side of the shed, and I’m also spray-painting some plastic pots.
Some of my work in the fall is paying off. The garlic bed looks great, and many of my transplants from the old house are loving life. Also, the spinach made it in the raised bed over the winter. Plants are amazing💚
Happy gardening and I’ll post updates next week🥕🌼