MAY GARDEN MAINTENANCE

I've found in my over 40 years of gardening that the following tips help me get through spring with a minimum of weeding and a maximum of enjoyment! Happy Spring!

·         Weeds! Those pesky plants that you don’t want where they pop up in your garden. Many may be perennials that we already have enough of, so that we can either share or compost them. Others are just plain invasive and might even crowd out or destroy our favored plants. (In the post below, you'll learn about my battle with lesser celandine.) So be sure to continue getting the weeds out as soon as you see them. There is no such thing as a weed that is too small to not bother removing. They will only grow larger, with more tenacious roots.

·         Continue dividing and spreading perennials for maximum color “punch.” As the weather gets warmer, be sure to keep the transplants watered until they “take.”

·         If you want to move your early spring bulbs, you may safely do it now. Three springs ago, I moved some tulips and daffodils while they were in bloom and put them among the daylilies. This year, they came up right on schedule with the added bonus that their leaves will be hidden by the iris and then daylilies, when the tulips fade. 

·         If you find that some of your perennials are invading others and you prefer to keep them in distinct clumps, now is a good time to separate them, before they get too intertwined. It’s best to do this task as soon as you notice a problem.

·         The question still comes up about those unsightly, yellowing daffodil leaves! My suggestion is that once the flower has shriveled up; remove its stalk to the base of the plant to prevent fruit formation. By removing it before it produces seeds, energy is not wasted, but instead food made by the leaves goes to bulb for next year’s flowers. In my experience, when they start to flop over, it is okay to cut off the top half of the leaves. That way, the remaining part of the leaves can continue photosynthesizing, sending food to the bulb (a storage stem) and, as a bonus, they spring back up. Eventually, when they are yellow, you can cut them to the base of the plant.

·         Pack them in. I’ve found that one of the best ways to cut down on weeds, besides a dense evergreen ground cover that allows perennials, etc. to grow through it, is to plant a succession of plants closely together.

EARLY SPRING BONUS TIME

It’s finally time to get out in the garden and have some fun! One of the many bonuses of gardening is the ability to increase your bounty by dividing your plants. Whether to fill in bare spots, move color and texture to new places, or simply share, dividing has huge payoffs.

For those who haven’t tried it yet, here are a few of the many plants that readily lend themselves to this procedure. You can try it on plants with fibrous roots, as well as those with corms and bulbs, like iris and daylilies.

                                                          Daylilies

                                                          Daylilies

                                                            Iris

Dividing Plants:

Japanese Primrose and Green and Gold (chrysogonum virginiannum 'allen bush'- a great ground cover!) To divide these plants and others in early spring, dig up the entire clump when it is small and carefully ease the individual plants apart, grasping the bottom of the leaves, near the roots. You can see these separate plants by their shared clump of roots. It is best to do this division a few days after a rain, when the soil is not heavy, but not dried out either. Then simply replant the new clumps in their new locations. This can also be done successfully later in the season, even when the plant is in bloom, but expect that it will wilt and need to be watered frequently. If you wait until it flowers, it is best to remove the blossoms (as painful as that may be), to allow the plant to recover more quickly from the shock.

(These plant photos are of my garden.)

                                       Chrysogonum with Wood Hyacinths

                                              Pink Bleeding Hearts

                                              White Bleeding Hearts

                                                      Japanese Primrose

                                                 Primrose (Primula)

These two methods can be used for dividing most plants and it is fun to experiment!