How Does Your Garden Grow? Garden Preparation for Spring

Andrew Stephanis | Mar 20, 2024

Spring is the perfect time to get busy in your garden, utilizing the stored energy from winter to clean, repair, prune, move, and kickstart the growing season. Get ready for a successful spring by following these steps:

1. Time for a spring inspection.

When the first warm days of spring arrive, head to the garden armed with a notepad. Its time to investigate what has transpired in the garden during winter hibernation. Pay attention to any signs of damage caused by cold, ice, snow or animals on the plants. Take note of the beds that require cleaning. Additionally, inspect hardscaping elements such as walls, fences, benches, and trellises for any signs of damage. Lastly, keep an eye out for evidence of new animal burrows from chipmunks, moles, and rabbits. Deer also can do a number on wintering plants, so be sure to document these activities and seek remedies from further destruction.

2. Spring Clean-up

Get your garden ready for spring by thoroughly cleaning up. This includes fallen branches, leaves that have been matted down, last years dead perennial matter, ornamental grasses, and any annuals that were missed from the fall. By maintaining cleanliness in your garden beds, you can help prevent pests and diseases from spreading. Also, be sure to clean out any debris from you pond or water features, and give your birds baths a good scrub. A solution of 1 part bleach to 5 parts water can help eliminate any diseases or insect eggs in or near your water features.

3. Test your Soil!

Experts suggest that you should test your garden soil every 3-5 years to determine its nutrient and organic material requirements, as well as identify any excessive amounts of nutrients. By testing your soil, you can have insight into high levels of phosphorus, which would prompt you to avoid fertilizers containing a significant amount of it. Additionally, you may find out that your soil in naturally high in alkalinity which would necessitate the addition of aluminum sulfate around evergreens and shrubs like hydrangeas.

4. Feed your Soil!

Once you know what your garden soil needs based on testing your soil, speak with a trusted horticulturist or local garden centre about which specific products to use and be sure to always follow the instructions on the package for best results.

A good general practice is to top-dress the soil with 2 inches of compost or triple mix soil in the early spring months just before your bulbs are starting to emerge. This is also a good time to add an organic plant food around your perennials and shrubs. Earthworms and other creatures will do the job of working these organic materials down into the soil.

5. Pruning

Spring is a good time to prune some kinds of woody shrubs and trees. Here is a helpful guide for you to follow here:

Start by pruning out anything that has been broken or damaged by winter ice, snow and animals. Remove dead wood, too.

Follow the general rule that flowering shrubs which bloom on new wood (this year’s growth) can be pruned in spring. This includes summer flowering shrubs like butterfly bush, hydrangeas, potentilla, rose of Sharon, and roses. Their flower buds will be set on the new flush of growth that appears after you prune it.

Spring is also a suitable time to shear back evergreens like boxwood and arborvitae once their initial flush of new growth has finished emerging.

DO NOT prune early flowering shrubs and those that bloom on old wood (last year’s stems) like azalea, forsythia, lilac, quince, ninebark and weigela in spring. If you do, you will risk cutting off this year’s flower buds, so best to wait and prune them after they have flowered. You might not be able to see them, but they are there, so resist the urge to prune.

6. Divide Perennials and Transplant Shrubs

When perennials are overcrowded or too large, consider dividing and transplanting then in the opposite season of their bloom cycle to avoid any disruption. Evergreen shrubs should be moved in early spring or fall before new growth, while deciduous shrubs can be transplanted in spring or fall when dormant for minimal stress and quick recovery.

7. Put out any necessary support like trellises and stake.

Install any required supports such as trellises and stake in your garden. If you stored a trellis during the winter, now is the time to bring it back out and ensure its in good condition before use. For plants like peonies and delphiniums that need support, set up the supports now to avoid difficulties later.

8. Be ready to take cover if freezing temperatures are in the forecast.

If you live in an area prone to late spring frosts, its important to protect you plants with tender buds or foliage from freezing temperatures. However, if the buds have not started to open yet, there is no need to cover them. Instead of using plastic sheeting or tarps, its best to use old sheets, towels, or professional row covers to cover your plants. Avoid using plastic as it can amplify the colds impact on the newly emerging buds and foliage rather than reducing it.

(The above was provided to the Frontenac News by Little Schoolhouse Garden Design and Landscaping, a Sydenham based company owned and operated by the husband-and-wife team of Andrew Rodmell and Danielle Stefanis along with their 3 employees.)