Did we just experience the ‘fastest’ winter ever here in southern New Hampshire? After a long, lingering and stunning fall that seemed to last well into November, followed by a couple of getaways to warmer locations in February and March, the winter just sped by. Now it’s time to prepare our minds and bodies for the glorious gardening season ahead. But, I caution readers against rushing the process for there is plenty of life in that leaf litter!

give sleeping beauties a bit more time

In The Big Little Garden, last year’s leaf litter and plant stems are mostly still untouched. While daytime temps are rising, nights are still cool. This means that all of the butterfly eggs and chrysalides that overwinter in our garden and leaves have yet to emerge. If possible, minimize disturbance in the garden until night time temps are consistently in the mid-50’s to ensure safe emergence of our beneficial insects. If you absolutely must remove leaves, please consider carefully moving them to an out of the way place on your property until everything has had a chance to emerge.

what we can do now

It feels great to get out in the yard and garden, and here is a list of tasks that we can focus on for the next 10 days or so:

• clean and sharpen all garden tools ~ it’s important to use clean, sharp tools when pruning and cutting back.

• rake lawns of debris ~ chop up larger limbs and branches to stack in a quiet corner or wooded area for a beneficial ‘insect hotel’. Add lighter material such as leaves and dried grass to the compost pile. I typically have 3 or 4 large bins of debris that I keep on hand for later in the season when I need a layer of carbon to mix with copious volumes of nitrogen-rich lawn clippings and kitchen waste.

• pull bark mulch away from tree trunks ~ this is such an important task and will help prevent disease and insect infestation. Be sure to gently pull or rake back any bark or other mulch that may have been piled up too high or too close to your tree. You should be looking to expose the trunk ‘flare’. If your tree looks like a telephone pole emerging from the ground, your mulch is definitely too close to the tree!! And if you must add more mulch this year (how about planting some groundcover instead??), please avoid the dreaded ‘mulch volcano’ affect. Your trees will be healthier and live longer as a result.

• prune woody shrubs ~ willows, panicle and smooth hydrangea that bloom on ‘new wood’. Every spring at this time, I remove the top half of my summer blooming ‘Pinky Winky’ hydrangea (shown above) to control the size. It’s not unusual for me to remove 48” or so of branches from the prior year.
  
  Hold off pruning spring blooming shrubs, including lilacs, azalea, rhododendrons, oak leaf hydrangea and climbing hydrangea until after the flowers fade. You can find excellent guides on the Fine Gardening website here.

• monitor trees for damage ~ while the winter was relatively mild, we did have that wicked polar vortex that swooped through in early February, causing temperatures to plummet about 50 degrees in 24 hours. Extreme temperature changes are super stressful for trees, especially those that were planted last year and all conifers and evergreens. It may take another month for the full extent of the damage to be revealed. If you are uncertain about the health of your tree, feel free to text me a photo or two with your concerns.

• clean bird houses ~ our chickadees and wrens are cavity dwelling birds and the spring air is filled with their song. This indicates they are beginning the mating season and scouting out nesting sites. Ours will likely return to their respective bird houses for the 6th year in a row. They rarely reuse old nesting material, so we can help them along by removing last year’s nests.

• remove last year’s hellebores leaves ~ buds are emerging, so you can now safely cut back last year’s spent leaves. New leaves will soon make an appearance!

• identify new native planting opportunities ~ now is a great time to conduct a critical assessment of your plantings. Do you have worn out or non-native trees and shrubs that could be replaced with more beautiful, productive and beneficial native species? Contact me to discuss!

Tickets for the Garden Conservancy Open Days tour on June 24th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. are available for purchase now. Even if you have toured my garden before, I encourage you to return as I have added a lot of new material in the past year, including more native trees, shrubs and perennials. Plus, I’m very excited for the arrival of two new water features that will be installed in a few weeks!

In addition to the tour, I will have dozens of native plants available for purchase at 30-50% off retail prices. Be sure to arrive early as the plant sale is typically quite popular! 100% of sale proceeds will be donated to charity.

Admission is only $10 per person ($5 for members). Click here for more information and to purchase your ticket! Also, note that a client’s garden will also be part of the Open Days tour. Carol’s ‘Accidental Garden’ is barely a mile away from mine, so it’s super easy to take in both gardens. Then you can venture on to Yvonne’s garden in Milford and the ‘Peace on Earth’ garden in Goffstown, NH for two more amazing, unique garden experiences. All tickets are available for purchase now, including more New Hampshire gardens that will be open on different days in May, June and September. You will leave the tours chock full of ideas and inspiration!

rewilding our landscape

There is a seismic shift happening within the horticulture industry as more and more garden designers and landscapers embrace a naturalistic planting approach. My own garden has been evolving from a manicured, curated design toward a densely planted, loose and free banquet of plants for all wildlife.

Research and scientific evidence underscores the importance of planting native trees, shrubs and perennials to support our native wildlife populations. I have a variety of books on this subject on my website here, and I recently completed a six week course given by plantsman Kelly Norris. I highly recommend his book ‘New Naturalism’ for gardeners who like a looser, more natural approach to their landscape. If you have questions about specific native plants for your own garden, I would love to hear them and to help you find just the right plants!

in the next garden talk

I will share thoughts on how you can ‘plant for abundance’ as Kelly Norris recommends, and will identify specific ‘keystone’ plants that can turn your landscape into a wildlife haven.

Until then, I encourage you to spend time in your garden, taking photos and making notes of areas that are lacking in some way. Explore this website for ideas, consider the possibilities, and share your dream for how to make this the best year yet in your garden!

~ until next time, Barb