Preparing for Spring

~ By Gardnbee ~

During the month of February there is little to do where we live, since snow is covering all areas where our flower gardens and vegetable garden is resting. One drawback with living in the more northern parts of the country is that winter hangs on forever it seems and the past few weeks have had a horrendous thunder storm, freezing rain and snow unending dropping by for a visit.

However in spite of the weather outside, we have checked our mowers, garden tools and things like that making sure engines are tuned up, blades, handles, shears, etc. are in good working order. Nothing like getting ready to mow a lawn and have the mower quit half way through, or raking and having the handle break and even worse is pruning with blunt blades which is not good for the plant your working with.

Another thing to be checked this time of year is any bulbs lifted in autumn to be planted this spring once the weather allows for outdoor activity and getting rid of any bulb that shows signs of disease, blight or weakness. So far my Pineapple lily bulbs are looking good. Fruit trees like Plums and Pears need to be finished up as far as pruning goes with a good spreading and digging in of manure around each.

Moving my gaze toward my houseplants it seems some are showing signs of outliving their current containers so they need to be moved into larger ones and this will be a good "stormy day" project. I also have some geraniums that I want to split and start now so that by the time sitting out weather arrives, they will be ready to enjoy. Geraniums have always proved difficult for me to keep over winter, but this year I am pleased with what is surviving so far. Which reminds me, I had best check on my potting soil mixture to make sure there is enough on hand and make sure there is enough fertilizer and Epson salts on hand too.

Along with getting ready for spring our attention is centered around what we are going to do with our flower beds and what we will grow this year in our vegetable garden. So out come the catalogues and gardening books to look through and discuss while dreaming from a realistic perspective :) A few years ago I had given my collection of spring bulbs to gardening friends because it had become too large for me to keep up and found that concentrating on perennials with a supplement of annuals for consistent color was of benefit overall.

The thing with perennials is that they do need splitting and re-arranging every few years and so with this in mind I have drawn plans on paper showing each plants location with consideration to where the new one will go. Keeping in mind, which one's need sun, need filtered light or will do well in shade. Seems a lot of work perhaps, in fact more than I have gone into with this sharing, but then any gardener will fairly state, "gardening is a labor of love". The pleasure derived from getting my hands into the Earth, watching as each flowering plant unfolds into miraculous color, or enjoying the fruits of our labor through eating, preserving and sharing what vegetables and fruit come forth each season is second to none other that comes to mind.

         

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