LATE SPRING
and into SUMMER
Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.
Frank Lloyd Wright
Soggy! But my garden is smiling...;)
Traditional wisdom is that gardens can’t be planted until Victoria Day. I’m glad traditional isn’t my style of we would be missing out on the wonderful greens and herbs abundant in Spring.
Keep the faith; summer is just around the corner -- or maybe the next corner.
PLAN
- next year’s floral display by staying on top of deadheading rhodos and lilacs;
- for sustainable landscaping by selecting plants appropriate to your garden’s conditions and replace lawn areas with perennial or shrub beds;
- variable height and density of plantings to create a diverse habitat;
- plan to spend time this summer in the midst of your colourful annual pots and baskets: plant geraniums, impatiens, fuschias, petunias, and heliotrope. Try mixing in some trailing marguerite sweet potato vine with its bright chartreuse fan-shaped leaves for added colour and beauty. Deadhead flowering plants to keep bloom coming for a long season of enjoyment.
DO
- deal with unwanted wildlife -- aphids, caterpillars, earwigs, root maggots, spider mites and whitefly. Carolyn Herriot in her must-have book A Year on the Garden Path gives many “simple home remedies” that do not include bringing pesticides into your environment;
- bring some natural insect repellants into your garden by planting marigolds, Italian sweet basil, mints (in pots!), tansy, nasturtiums, sunflowers, phacelia, and amaranth;
- in the vegetable garden: plant soya beans, overwinter broccoli; continue planting bush & pole beans, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, corn, cucumbers, kale, leeks, lettuce, scallions, pumpkin, spinach, squash, swiss chard, and tomatoes;
- if using raised beds, which is proven to produce more food in less space, do crowd plants. They can be grown close together which virtually eliminates the task of weeding;
- add mulch to moderate soil temperature and maintain even moisture;
- for late summer colour, plant dahlias and gladiolus now;
- prune spring-blooming shrubs: thin and shape them before they set next spring’s flower buds.
ENJOY
- reaping the benefit of your Fall leaf compost
- making herb-infused salt (see Projects page)
- flamboyant Peony blossoms
;)
;)
SPRING
For the West Coast gardener, March comes in with a gloat in the direction of everything east and goes out with dirty fingernails and a big grin! This year with March seeming more like April - according to the frogs in the evening, the return of the swallows, and the pink blossom ‘snow’ on windy days in Victoria - the temptation is to push the season. There are ways to do that without endangering the crops. Spring is a wonderful, busy time in the garden: PLAN What are you dreaming of for your garden this year? What do you need from it and what does it need from you? Perhaps less lawn - large enough to accent the garden beds and provide a sitting/playing area and small enough to manage with a rotary lawn mower providing health benefits for the entire ecosystem and grateful neighbours. Start to think about water provision this year - what about a rain barrel to collect runoff from eavestroughs and use for watering plants? DO clean and sharpen tools spread finished compost on beds watch for arrival of aphids and hose them off plants with a jet of water plant seedlings of cool-season annuals such as calendulas, English daisies, pansies, snapdragons, stock and violas after pruning, spread a handful of Epson salts and about a cup of alfalfa pellets or meal around the drip line of each of your roses; rhodos will also benefit from a feeding of Epson salts lift and divide perennials like bee balm and phlox into at least two clumps plant perennials: bleeding hearts, columbines, forget-me-nots, primroses, and wallflowers as rhododendron and azalea flowers fade and seed heads form, pinch them off to divert energy from seed production to overall plant vigour prune spring-flowering shrubs, such as forsythias and lilacs, right after they bloom plant flowering trees: cherry, crabapples and dogwoods, along with roses and cut back summer and fall flowering clematis to the strongest stems continue succession planting of your pea crop and check for spaces in the broad bean rows; sow radishes, spinach, fennel, parsley, cauliflower, cabbage, potatoes, broccoli, carrots, seed potatoes and onion sets set out seedlings of chives, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage and thyme Fresh chives and green onions; small sweet kale leaves; blossoms.
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flowering shrubs such as rhododendrons, azaleas and lilacs;)
ENJOY