Last year at this time, it was snowing or about to snow. Two years, ago it was so dry and warm we were dragging hoses to water the landscape.
This year, who knows, but we’ll take whatever the weather dishes out and get the garden chores started. And we’ll like it, because we know what lies ahead: home-grown vegetables and gathering rose bouquets. Here’s what should be on your list to do, whatever the weather.
GET INFORMED
Is this the season you want or need to brush up on garden know-how and techniques? Whether you want to learn to plant peppers, an eye-catching mixed flower container, how to change a sprinkler head or how to choose border plants that bloom from spring through fall, make it happen now.
Gardening skills are easily acquired through hands on trial and error; just ask any experienced gardener. Taking classes or and attending lectures is another way to glean from the experts or enhance what you already know. Available classes range from a quick, one-hour topic to day-long seminars, workshops or higher-education degrees. In some cases, you end up with a certification of completion. Where to go:
• Garden centers and public gardens like Hudson Gardens, Denver Botanic Gardens and the Gardens on Spring Creek offer year-round garden instruction.
•The Colorado Master Gardening program through Colorado State University Extension is offered at the beginning of the year in most counties around the state. Boulder County also offers fall evening training. Check with your local extension office for registration deadlines and more information. You can now also take such courses — a few, or the whole program.
• The CSU Extension Native Plant Master Certification programs for 2014 are getting started statewide. This is the place to learn about plant identification and basic botany, Colorado native plant landscaping, invasive weed management.
• Denver Urban Gardens offers Master Community Gardening training and more at dug.org
• The City of Aurora has on-line, downloadable water-conservation instruction materials or in-person classes including landscape design, irrigation basics and growing food. More: auroragov.org
• Places like Front Range Community College, Metropolitan State College of Denver, University of Colorado Denver and Colorado State University have landscape design programs. More: unixl.com/dir/landscape-design/colorado/
• And always check the weekly Denver Post Grow garden calendar for area classes/events. You can also download The Denver Post’s Garden Colorado app for many helpful articles and resources about gardening in CO, available for iPad, Kindle or Android tablet.
IN THE LANDSCAPE
Grab your rake. It’s time to get those muscles out of winter dormancy. Do a few laps around your yard to warm up, followed by some easy arm stretches and waist bends to remind your body parts that they still function.
Work on days when the soil has dried out; walking on wet garden soil causes soil compaction, making planting difficult.
• With cleaned, sharpened or new tools, cut back dead foliage on perennials. Dig or pull out any remaining annuals or vegetables from last season.
• Cut ornamental grasses down to 5 or 6 inches above the crown. If the clump is dead in the middle, it will need to be divided, which can be done from now into next month, before the plant puts on lots of new growth.
• Carefully rake out remaining leaves, twigs or garbage from beds, avoiding emerging plant foliage or spring bulbs. Toss the organic debris into the compost pile or chop it up and use for mulch in the vegetable garden.
• As you cut back and clean, pull or dig those early weeds before they are out of control. Be on the lookout for noxious weeds such as leafy spurge or purple loosestrife (you may think these are pretty, but they need to go).
• Cleaned-out beds benefit from an inch or two of finished compost or amended soil. Pull back the mulch and work the soil in and around plants and shrubs.
• Add some slow-release fertilizer to the beds if bloom quality has waned over the years. And consider a soil test. More: www.ext.colostate.edu/mg/Gardennotes/232.html
• Brighten the house by forcing outdoor branches to bloom inside. Cut 1- to 2-foot lengths of spring-blooming branches of apple, cherry, plum, forsythia, lilac, dogwood or honeysuckle. After bringing indoors, cut a couple of 1-inch side slits from the bottom of the stem so they will take up water. Place in a vase, add warm water and wait for bloom (2 to 6 weeks, depending on type). The closer the bloom date outdoors, the closer they will bloom inside. Change the water every few days. More: chicagobotanic.org/plantinfo/cut_branches_indoor_arrangements_and_forcing
VEGETABLES
• Indoors, start warm-season seeds of tomato, pepper, eggplant, tomatillo for transplanting outdoors later in May. If you don’t want to start seeds indoors, these plants may be purchased in May for planting outdoors.
• Hardy cool-season vegetable seeds of peas, potatoes, lettuce, spinach, radish and transplants of broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts can be planted now if soil temperatures are over 40 degrees. Use tunnels, cloches or cold frames for days and nights under 45 degrees.
Read more of Betty Cahill at gardenpunchlist.blogspot.com/
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