Get in the garden this weekend
Posted on April 18th, 2008 – 3:37 PMBy Connie Nelson
If you’re at all like me, you really, really want to get outside and do something in the garden this weekend. It’s still a little early, but depending on your soil and sun exposure, it might be OK to go ahead and start in.
Here are some things you can do:
If your grass feels firm underfoot, go ahead and rake lightly. If it still feels kind of squishy, wait a bit. Remember, you can rip those little grass plants right out of the ground if you rake too early.
If you have some thin spots in your lawn, go ahead and seed.
Cut back any perennials you left standing for the winter and haul them to the composter.
Pull back the winter mulch and see how your plants are doing. If some are coming up but look an icky pale green, let them get some sunlight. (You’d be wise to just move the mulch out of the way rather than haul it away. We may be info another bout of cold weather next week.)
If the soil in your beds is dry enough to work, you can plant cold-season stuff — lettuce, peas, onions, radishes and the like. You may want to add a little compost or composted manure to the soil before you plant.
There. That should be enough to keep you busy. If you run out of things to do, gimme a holler. I’ve always got chores enough to share!
4 Responses to "Get in the garden this weekend"
Its 83 in Delaware! We somehow skipped over spring because it was 53 last week…
I didn’t do much in the garden, except doing the suggested trimming of leftover plant material from last year. In this case, tall ornamental grasses. My wife spent a lot of time picking up the unusually high volume of pine needle clumps. The front yard was covered, literally, with them. My theory is that the squirrels were building a nest and dropped a lot of their intended nesting material.
Bsimon,
You’re probably right about the squirrels. I noticed the same thing and talked to a critter guy at the U. He said that squirrels drop twigs from trees as they’re building their nests in spring. (You may also notice the same thing in mid-summer, when teenaged squirrels get kicked out of the nest and have to build their own nests.)
I had one other thought, tho. Pines do drop some of their needles in spring. . .
thanks for the info. These aren’t just needles though, but whole clumps, and the stick ends look gnawed through. At first I thought they might get some kind of nutrient from the sap, but figured we’d have seen it before. There’re a lot more of such droppings this year than we’ve seen before.
Greengirls Connie Nelson, Robyn Dochterman and Jaime Chismar are dishin' the dirt from the backyard garden and beyond. Whether you're a greenthumb or greenhorn, they're eager to learn from your misshaps, mistakes -- and most importantly, your sweet successes -- all growing season long.
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