Lawns and Gardens
Spring Clean Your Garden
By
Jun 11, 2006, 00:10

(NC)-Start your garden this season by doing as management experts suggest: plan your work and work your plan. The first warmish sunny morning is the perfect time to take a cup of coffee into the garden and make a list of your goals for the new season.

For example, if you want less lawn and more vegetable or flower garden this year, early spring is the time to stake out the new areas. Removing sod can be a tough job. To ensure you eliminate turf right to the root, wait until the thermometers hits 15º C / 60º F, then spray your chosen garden area with Roundup. Cut and turn the turf and you can plant tomorrow!

Next, examine your lawn and garden to determine where you have to perform the essential rites of spring: clear, cut, prune, weed and mulch.

Clear: Early spring is the time to pull away winter protective mulch from plants like fall-planted perennials and strawberries. If you neglected to do it last autumn, you can also clear away last year's annual flowers and vegetables.

Cut: Cut back ornamental grasses and dead stems from perennials now. But later this season, resist the temptation to cut back the foliage from flowering bulbs. These sometimes unsightly leaves are vital to storing food for next year's bloom.

Prune: Dead branches on fruit trees, climbing roses, hibiscus and other woody stems.

Weed: Spot spray a non-selective weed control product, such as Roundup or Scotts EcoSense Acetic Acid to destroy weeds while they're young between patio stone, in sidewalks or in the garden itself. Non-selective herbicides are also useful to eliminate weeds that can choke drainage ditches, so that weed growth doesn't clog the ditch and allow standing water to breed mosquitoes.

Mulch: Apply Nature Scapes mulch, made from 100 per cent natural forest material to keep the weeds down and the moisture in. Replenish mulch around trees, shrubs and perennial beds.

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