March Garden Chores

Eager to get out in the garden? We’re approaching the Vernal Equinox, which means the days will be getting longer, giving us the perfect opportunity to get your garden ready for the season ahead. 

Start by cleaning up your vegetable and perennial beds. This includes removing any dead vegetation and debris. Insects and disease can winter over and you'll help reduce potential problems later on by doing a good clean up now. Now’s the time to evaluate the soil in your vegetable beds. Soil texture and richness are fundamental to your garden’s success and testing is something that should be done on a regular basis. Whether you’ve experienced specific problems, such as Tomato Blossom End Rot or you’ve been disappointed in your garden’s overall yields, it’s important to establish a baseline, in order to know how to proceed to improve your soil. 

You can do this yourself with a simple test kit or you can send a soil sample to the labs at Colorado State University. You’ll get a very comprehensive soil analysis from the labs at CSU. Once you’ve received your test results, bring the report in. We’ll help you choose the products you need in order to implement the changes they recommend. Foundational to soil quality and heath is the practice of adding organic materials, called amendments. Common soil amendments include compost, peat moss and earthworm castings, but before you try digging in your garden make sure the ground is workable. 

A simple way to do this is to grab a handful of soil and squeeze it. If it crumbles when you open your hand the soil is workable. If it stays in a clump, the soil is too wet and you need to wait. 

In your perennial gardens, now is the time to prune back ornamental grasses. They do best if you cut them back to five or six inches above the ground. Other summer flowering shrubs such as Buddleia and Caryopteris should also be pruned now. Wait to prune spring blooming shrubs such as Lilac, Forsythia, Spirea until after they bloom. Hold off pruning your roses until mid-April. 

Watch for perennial weeds that may have wintered over. Groundsel, Mallow and others can survive the harshest winter weather and many are blooming right now. Dig them up or treat with Burnout weed control. Starting your garden clean up now, will mean fewer chores during planting season.