Spring Gardening Tips

I don't think it's a secret that we love Garden Gnomes. However, we also love gardens and know how great it feels to get out of the house while the pain of winter dies down. For those of you who can't wait to get out to your garden and redecorate or redesign it, we wanted to arm you with 10 Spring gardening tips:

Spring - April & May

1. April is clean-up time. Remove leaves and other debris from garden beds and lawn.

2. Prune roses after the forsythia blooms.

3. Wait for soil to warm-up before putting down mulch in flower and vegetable beds. Mid-April in the lower U.S. and Mid-May in the upper U.S. is a good time.

4. There are many cool season annual flowers to plant that will tolerate springtime’s cold days and nights. The following plants are all frost fighters. That means if the temperature gets close to freezing, these babies can take it. Pansy and viola are the most popular followed by calendula aka Pot Marigold, snapdragons and poppy. Where as lobelia, love-in-a-mist and sweet alyssum can be planted a little later when nighttime temperatures are consistently above 40 degrees.

5. Springtime also loves the vegetable garden. Several veggies can be directly sown or transplanted from plugs outdoors in spring. Lettuce, spinach, and radish can take the cooler early April weather while beets, carrots and swiss chard favor warmer soil to get going – so a few weeks later is the time to plant them.

6. Spring is the perfect time to plant new trees and shrubs. Make sure the hole is 2 ½ times the diameter of the root ball of your new plant. Dig a million dollar hole for a $2 plant. You want to make sure your plant will have a healthy root system. You have to supplement water if there isn’t 1” of rain fall per week. That’s especially important for new plants. They need to get established and having moist roots helps. Keep the soil moist, not flooded, for the first two weeks after planting and then make sure they are watered weekly.

7. GNOMES LOVE HONEY. Plant as many blue flowers as possible to attract bees. The herb Borage is a favorite of bees. The leaves of this plant can be eaten when young, (they taste like cucumber) and it has lovely edible flowers too! Throw the flowers in salads or use them to decorate cakes.

8. Use flower boxes and containers to add splashes of color to areas where there isn’t any soil to plant. Hanging baskets draw the eye up adding additional color to your landscape.

9. Grow a large pot of herbs near the kitchen door for easy access to fresh herbs for recipes. Parsley, borage, chives and cilantro grow well in spring.

10. It’s not too late to plan for the summer garden. Decide what you’re going to grow now so you’ll have time to enjoy it when summer arrives.

Alana Mezo
www.whosyourhoney.com - Gourmet Honey, Raw Honey, Honey Mustard, Hot Sauces, and more...