Community Corner
Early Spring Gardening Chores
There are a few tasks to accomplish before the official gardening season begins.
Peeping out through mulch beds all over Ashburn are the first signs of spring – little green shoots connected to tulips, daffodils and various other spring bulbs. These early signs have me eager to get outside, enjoy the sunshine and tend my garden.
Fertilize
March is the beginning of the growing season and your plants need food. Many gardeners suggest a 16-16-16 fertilizer on fruit trees, perennials, shrubs, annuals and ground cover. For tulips and daffodil bulbs, apply a high-nitrogen, quick-release fertilizer. It is also the ideal time to apply horticultural oil to deciduous trees to protect them from mites and other insects.
Find out what's happening in Ashburnwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Mulch
Check the depths of your mulch beds; organic mulch can decompose or wash away during the winter. Fluff your mulch and try to level out your beds. The ideal depth for beds is at-least two inches. Remove the winter mulch around your rose bushes and spread a new layer of organic mulch.
Find out what's happening in Ashburnwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
While inspecting beds, go ahead and get a head start on edging and weeding. By digging out roots now, you will save hours of weeding later.
Pruning
March is the ideal time to cut back perennials, fruit trees and rose bushes that you left standing for winter. For fruit trees, you want to prune buds prior to blooming to avoid tree stress. Most rose bushes also benefit from an early spring pruning. Consult a gardening book prior to trimming roses because timing and method vary depending on individual species.
Reposition Stones
If you have a stone walkway or wall, now is the time to reposition stones, which tend to shift during the winter months. Readjusting stones to help stabilize a border is a task that shouldn’t take too long and the results are instantaneous. Now that the ground has thawed out, you can take repositioning stones even further and level out your walkway. To properly level walkways, lift out the stones and add gravel or soil underneath and then relay the stones. A level comes in handy to ensure that everything is even.
Clean Out Birdhouses
It is time to remove all that nasty debris hidden in your birdhouses from last year. This will make them the appealing for spring nesting.
Happy gardening.
