When are you going to begin working in your garden?

Now that winter appears to be finally over, the question remains, when to begin preparing the soil and beds for the new plantings this year. I want to expand a couple of established beds, as well as begin a new bed. I don't want to distub the soil too early, and possibly cause problems, but I would like to prepare the soil as early as possible since I have decided to go as organic as I can, and some of the amendments that I would like to add need additional time to be available to the plantings.

Two of the areas that I am expanding have a slight slope to the street. In these areas, in order to avoid possible soil loss, I would like to plant a ground cover as soon as possible - probably a mondo or pachysandra. I hesitate to prepare the soil here unless I can plant my ground cover right away.

I did notice today in the Fredericksburg, VA area, the smell of fresh mulch in the air, when I stopped at a Cracker Barrel.

Hey There Penne - You just ate at my favorite restaurant. yum-yum Don't count on winter weather being gone for the year. Anything can still happen. I am a lot like you though and probably most everyone else on the site - we are READY for spring. The past two days were glorious. I was outside for a bit each day and it was so nice.

I haven't done anything to any of my beds other than look and see what all is coming up. I did notice that I have some fairly large areas where the mulch either washed away or disintigrated. Our front yard looks like a wrecking crew has been through it. You would believe the amount of large rocks out there. There are also piles of manure and piles of mulch sitting around from last year.

I am sure that everyone will get sick of hearing me speak of my new walkway that is in the works, so I will apologize. It just seems to keep coming to mind as I speak of gardening. I will not be doing much gardening out there this year. It is a very sloped front yard and is under construction and dangerous for me and my body balance issues. My husband has been really great about helping me out with my gardens. He will have to do most of the maintenance to front beds.

Penne - sorry but I am not the one to answer your question. There are many and most who are a lot more knowledgeable than myself. Good topic though and very helpful I am sure.

Ruby

Too late, I went out in the garden yesterday and gave everyone a haircut (liriope, St. John's Wort, and various other perennials). I'm scheduled to work in Va Beach this week, so I figured I'd do my pruning before driving south today. I also made up some potting soil and placed it in my empty containers out on the patio; partly in preparation for plants ordered online and partly just because I just needed to get dirty. I need to order a load of leaf mould from the city, so that I can topdress my beds.

Enjoy the great weather this week. I will be missing my garden.

Hi Penne & Everyone, This is my very first posting on Dave's and thus exciting! There appear to be a whole host of gardening fans like myself to chat with - Yippee!
Re working my gardens too early, this is always a concern of mine too, but the fellow who mulches my gardens (I have rheum. arthritis or I'd do it myself) will be here at months end and thus I thought I'd like to pull what are obviously weeds.
Each year at this time I have the same worry, will my plants make it through a 3- 4 inch layer of mulch - they always seem to make it, still I always worry. Then I see so much talk about fall mulching that I wonder if perhaps that would be better then at springtime .... what are your ideas on this?
With temps headed into the 70's this week, I can't resist working outside!
Betty in Maryland

Hi, Betty! Welcome! I'm very close to you. If it'sany consolation, I'm really bad at mulching (don't do it) and everything seems to survive. But if I had 3 -4 inches around them and saw baby leaves coming up, I couldn'tresist clearing the path for them a little.

Betty,

Welcome to DG! You will be addicted in no time flat! Just such a bunch of knowllegable, nice people.

I live in the Perry Hall/White Marsh area. Been here almost 38 years.
As far as mulching goes, I believe 2" is the recommended depth of mulch. 3" the absolute deepest. And NEVER, NEVER use the raw wood chips that come from the chippers when they cut down trees. Mulch should be well composted or you will be inviting serious problems.

I will be doing the Fertilizer/Crab grass pre emergent application later today. It is supposed to rain Wednesday, so it will all get washed in nicely.

Gita

Thinking about starting this saturday with strawberries and sugar snap peas. Any thoughts?

Gita, actually you can use fresh wood chips for mulch so long as you don't dig them into the soil. And who digs mulch into the soil. They used to believe that raw wood chips would rob the plants of nitrogen but more recent research has shown that's false. They do, but only if they're dug into the soil. As just mulch, they're fine. Just make sure it's only clean wood and doesn't contain any black walnut.

There was quite a discussion on this somewhere not too long ago and someone was planning on using sawdust, a big no-no because it will smother the plants, from a wood shop, another big no no because it would contain contaminants from wood finishing.

I'd love to get started on my vegetable garden but it's way to wet to be turning soil. It would ruin the soil structure. If you want to do any digging, wait until the water from the recent snow melt off and rains has drained off a bit. If it's wet here, where my rocky soil usually drains dry in hours, it must be like a swamp where the rest of you all live.

Penne, I have a very tall, extreme slope at the road here - almost straight up and down vertical. It was covered with creeping phlox, which did a great job of holding the soil, has beautiful blooms in May and spreads very nicely. I was at Lowes today and they had nice sized (gallon?) pots of creeping phlox in several colors for $3.33.

Notice I said it was covered with phlox? A couple of years ago, the knucklehead from VDOT who mows the right of way literally plowed instead of mowed that slope. Killed almost every scrap of that phlox because he scraped so far down into the soil. It's pretty quickly growing back from a small patch that wasn't damaged.

The other advantage of phlox is it's extremely tough and drought tolerant but does fine if it's not too dry too.

Yesterday I couldn't resist doing some cleanup in the large border in the backyard but I agree with hart, it is far too wet still to work the soil. I tried to be careful about walking on it because I know that will do some damage, too.

Pruning roses is generally the first task I have in the spring but that should not be done until the forsythia blooms and I'm guessing that is a couple of weeks away, at least. There was a snowflake on the forecast for Saturday, which only means that it is going to be cold again.

hart, your slope covered with creeping phlox sounds just beautiful. I always love seeing creeping phlox when out driving around but have never grown it myself.

Hart,

I was also thinking of potential danger of Termites if raw wood chips are used. It could be like a "buffet".....unless it is the right kind of wood.

Greendog,

Besides applying my Crab grass control today, I also cut back my Butterfly bushes to about a foot. You are correct on the timing for pruning Roses. Do you also listen to Alan Summers???? :o) He always says about the Forsythia....

Gita

I often have listened to Alan Summers- He really seems to know his stuff, altho his business acumen may not be so hot(see watchdog)
Last year I trimmed my liriope when the Forsythis bloomed. Its just before the old leaves get really dry and ratty and before the new ones come up ,that you don't want to cut. I admit, I may just skip it altogether this year. I think he also hooked potato planting to forsythis, but I could be wrong on that one.
Cpreeping phlox-one of my must haves. I love to smell it. I have blue and light pink
I don't want cold on the weekend!
Spring peepers today

Hart,

You are completely right about the soil being wet. There is a large section on the side of my house that is just filled with footprints because it is so boggy now. Friday morning, I had a man giving me an estimate on a fence (yeah!), and we were tramping all over the place. I couldn't believe how soggy the whole yard was then.

I was hoping that if, if the warm weather holds out, I might be able to do something this weekend - during that hour that I don't have to take the kids somewhere, clean the house, clean up after the dog, and babysit my seedlings.

Is creeping phlox an evergreen perennial or does it disappear in the winter?

Gitagal, who is Alan Summers? I must be missing out because I don't even know the name. I know about pruning roses because I've been a member of the Potomac Rose Society for quite a while and the forsythia blooming is the usual rule of thumb for rose pruning.

Thanks everyone! and a special hello to Sally in Millersville, right up Benfield Road from me. I'm going to be certain my mulch is limited to 2-3 inches and will clear paths as suggested. I, too, have cut back my butterfly bushes and will also do so to the Black Lace Sambucus I planted last year, now only 2 twigs with tiny buds ... it's going to need a lot of pruning to produce the bushy look I'm hoping for. Today I'll pick up 3 of our 19 grandkids for a couple of days .... I'm hoping a bit of a bribe might encourage them to help Grammy pick up acorns - usually they love doing it if they can use the wheelbarrow, yippee! Betty btw, is there a spell-check on our message board, I could sure use one!

Greendog,

Allan Summers is our local "Garden Guru" here in, and around, Baltimore. He is very knowledgeable in all areas and also a great innovator and hybridizer (or at leas his connections provide him all the latest varieties of things). He owns "Carroll Gardens" in Westminster (outside of Balto.to the N.W. Just go out Rt. 140, past Owings Mills, and you will run into Westminster)
His Greenhouse (??) and shop are a holy mess! He has a very low rating in the Garden Watchdog. He does have quite an extensive Mail Order business and will ship anything. He does not run that out of his retail location. Don't know from where????

He is best known for his radio call-in show every Saturday AM (year round) on WCBM 680 on AM radio here. It is on from7AM-9AM. Not sure you can pick it up in Gaithersburg???? Try it! It is a call-in show and people ask all kinds of gardening questions. He has an answer for everything!

You can sign up for his weekly FREE newsletter. It will arrive on Thursdays.
Go to : carrollgardens.com and check it out.

Gita

Hey, everyone!
Couldn't resist & had to get outside today on a day off. Started to clean up my flower beds & will mulch tomorrow & trim up my butterfly bush. It's so nice to see some of my bulbs peeping through! I planted some of the pink daffodil varieties & am very anxious to see how they do. I may have done a no-no today-I lightly trimmed my climbing roses. Hope they aren't hurt although they seem to be very forgiving! I have a question for pet owners: is pine mulch dangerous to cats & dogs? I know that pine cleaners are harmful. My Home Depot had very little cedar mulch which I got anyway but they had loads of pine.

Although I am not an expert, I don't think that pine mulch would be dangerous. When I lived in Savannah, everyone used pine mulch, and I know that several of my neighbors had dogs. I have both a dog and cat, and neither seemed to pay the mulch any mind. We also had plenty of pine needles, because there were a lot of pine trees on the property.

The bad news for everyone is that this weekend, the temperature is supposed to drop back down again. Today was near 70 degrees. It is supposed to be in the mid fifties this weekend.

I did see something interesting today at Merrifields. They had a soil conditioning product that was a combination of compost, hummus, and seashells - there may have been something else in it as well. I have never seen anything like it, but it seemed that a really good combination, since I want to try to limit using chemical fertilizers.

Warwick, you're thinking of cocoa mulch. I've read that, like chocolate, it can be very dangerous for dogs. Read in other places that dogs would have to eat massive amounts of the mulch to be harmed. I guess if you have dogs it's better to be safe than sorry and avoid cocoa mulch.

Here's what Snopes has on it.
http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoamulch.asp

Pennefeather, sorry I missed your question. Yes, the creeping phlox is evergreen. It has pretty foliage I think and it's very dense so does a great job of keeping weeds out.

Catonsville!!! native or more recent transplant? my home 'town' grew up in the neighborhood kind of behind the community college! Where YMCA is. used to be a mansion, and in the woods a little hidden pond we skated on a few times. Probably gone for houses.
Didn't mean to hijack- Gotta take advantage of this weather, always something to clean up out there, and therapeutic, puts me in the zone of non thinking.
pennefeather- That soil amendment sounds great, {except for the chickpeas LOL :^)}

Sigh...I am looking out the office window and it is raining. Yahoo tells me that the temperature has dropped to 48 now and the low on Saturday is supposed to be 22. I knew it was too late for winter weather to be gone for good...but I was hoping! I guess I should have brought a jacket along with me to work.

- Brent


This message was edited Mar 15, 2007 5:14 PM

I know Brent. Joining in your sigh. We had an hellacious thunderstorm last night and more pouring rain this afternoon. And I don't want any more cold weather. I heard the tail end of a weather forecast on Foxnews earlier and they mentioned something about snow - for north of here I assume. It is supposed to be in the 40s during the day the next few days and then warm back up mid week next week.

Oh, great, here's the weather advisory I found in my email.

FOR TONIGHT...MIXED RAIN SNOW AND SLEET IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP AS
EARLY 7 PM TONIGHT ACROSS THE WESTERN MOUNTAIN AREAS. THIS WINTRY
MIX WILL SPREAD EAST ACROSS THE POTOMAC HIGHLANDS AND THE NORTHERN
SHENANDOAH VALLEY OVERNIGHT.

ON FRIDAY...A RAIN AND SNOW MIX IS EXPECTED ACROSS THE POTOMAC
HIGHLANDS AND THE NORTHERN SHENANDOAH VALLEY DURING THE LATE MORNING
HOURS AND WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE AFTERNOON. AT TIMES MORE SNOW
THAN RAIN COULD OCCUR. AT HIGHER ELEVATIONS ABOVE 3000 FEET
FREEZING RAIN IS ALSO POSSIBLE.

FURTHER EAST ON FRIDAY...ACROSS EXTREME NORTHERN VIRGINIA AND
NORTH CENTRAL MARYLAND...RAIN WILL BECOME MIXED WITH SNOW IN THE
AFTERNOON. AT TIMES MORE SNOW THAN RAIN WILL OCCUR.

BY FRIDAY NIGHT...AS THE LOW MOVES UP THE COAST...PRECIPITATION
WILL CHANGE TO MOSTLY ALL SNOW DURING THE EVENING...BEFORE THE
PRECIPITATION ENDS LATE FRIDAY NIGHT.

Thanks Hart. :)

I think everyone had Spring Fever when it warmed up to the low 80's on Wednesday !! I'm also watching the pouring rain from my office window....bummer!

There's always lots of Spring cleaning to do in the garden....cutting back ornamental grasses, pruning Clematis vines, removing deadwood from Rose bushes, mulching, etc., etc. From the weather forcast, it doesn't sound like a good weekend for working outside in the garden....to cold.

Hey, SallyG! I am a born & bred Catonsville girl! Live in the Oak Forest area, right by where you grew up. Sorry to say your guess is right-those beautiful farms are now townhomes--no more sledding or skating! The residents get quite perturbed at the deer coming from the state park. good news is that since more people are getting into birding & gardening, we're seeing more varieties of species: Cooper's hawks(a whole family!) ,Pileated woodpeckers, Eastern bluebirds, & Hummingbirds galore!
Thought for the day: Certainly wish I could be as passionate about housework as I am about the outdoors!
Thankyou to everyone for your comments about the mulch ..not sure why there isn't much cedar available yet so I'll put my pet worries aside & buy up the pine.
To anyone who's interested, I planted a Griffith's select Gardenia last spring. It's thriving! Hard to predict it's future since our winter was mild but my hopes are up! Had several blooms on it last summer & I'm hoping there will be more. Certainly not as beautiful as the standard gardenia but still a delight.

warwick- second that on housework.................

warwick,

Usually, HD sells Cedar mulch in bags. I don't know if they have it in this year, as I am still sitting home recovering from my knee replacement surgery. Hope to get back to work in less than a month....

Anyway, I saw the other day an article somewhere about some environmentalists making a big stink about cedars being "wasted" to make mulch. Don't remember where. It is possible thy will be cutting down on the production of Cedar mulch.....

Gita

Oh, Oh, I want to dig in the dirt too. Just found your interesting thread I spent the last two days banging around in the yard too wet to do much, but did a little weeding and looking around to see how things over wintered. Now we have snow today.
Big welcome to Baylady, you will love it here. Your Grandkids sound like fun. I remember I could get my son to do or move anything as long as he got to drive the yard tractor around. Move that rock pile??? No problem "Joshie get the tractor and move that pile". "Sure Mom". Then he grew up and wanted the truck.
But I have a Grandson JR and he's ready to help just needs to grow a few muscles. And if I can keep him from stepping on the flowers he just helped me plant I'm happy.
Holly