5 Ways to Add Some Spring to Your Step
1 Time to get the pots and beds all ready for spring color! Pansies, violas and ornamental greens had a hard winter. The warm winter transitioned fast into a brutally cold one, without providing cool season annuals a chance to acclimate, resulting in some rough looking pansies around town! If your pansies aren’t giving off that lovely spring feel, get a jump start on warm season color by removing them and readying your landscape beds and pots.
2 Add spring bloomers to your landscape! What’s blooming in your landscape right now? If the answer is not much, consider accenting your landscape with spring blooming shrubs and trees. A few great options include shrubs such as forsythia, azaleas, quince and spireas! Spring blooming trees include dogwoods, redbuds, deciduous magnolias, Japanese snowbell, ornamental cherries and plums. This is a quick list; there are many more to choose from!
3 Who is ready to GARDEN? Vegetables, herbs, figs and small fruits are all available for planting now! Go ahead and plant cool season items and fruits now, and watch the weather for the all clear on warm season vegetables and herbs that can’t handle frosts with ease. Warm season vegetables and herbs such as tomatoes, peppers and basil can be planted in pots now, just be prepared to bring them in. If you have row covers, or a protected garden area, you can plant them outside now too, but remember to watch the weather and protect as needed.
5 It’s time for a few haircuts… plants that is! Proper timing and defined purpose are key in successful pruning. For example, spring blooming shrubs should be pruned after blooming. Groundcovers and perennials can be pruned before new spring growth appears. And evergreens like boxwoods can be shaped up after spring growth slows down. Uncertain about what to prune when? Ask questions before making the cut or visit this pruning post!
6 Mulch! Fresh mulch gives a landscape an instant makeover, creating defined lines, brightening the contrast between plant materials and the ground area, and bonus, mulch can keep new weed seeds from germinating, meaning less maintenance later in the season.