Getting your player ready...
Landscape
Time to move: Get outside for an all-out garden clean-up. Warm up your winter-dormant muscles by taking a few brisk walking laps around the yard while moving your arms. Comfortable clothes, a hat, gloves, sunscreen are a must. Take hourly water breaks.
Tidy-up the landscape: Use cleaned and sharpened tools to cut back dead foliage on perennials and cut down ornamental grasses to 6 inches or just above new growth. Rake excess leaves on the lawn or in beds. Toss all the disease-free foliage in the compost pile.
Weed no-brainer: Pull them as you see them; they don’t get any easier to pull than after spring rains. Deeper-rooted weeds may need the help of a weeder, trowel or the versatile hori-hori digging tool.
Refresh and replenish mulched areas. Mulch to a depth of 2-3 inches to cut down on weed growth and to make pulling weeds easier. Weeds eventually grow in landscape fabric and can be harder to remove, so consider not using it if redoing beds.
Remove tree wrap.
Lawn
Sharpen mower blades and replace the oil to get a good start to the mowing season.
Use the mower bag to pick up excess leaves or small twigs for the first mow or two.
Core aerating the lawn each spring relieves soil compaction and thatch buildup. The lawn should be moist, not wet, prior to aeration to pull deep plugs. Leave the plugs on the lawn to break down, or mow over to break them up sooner.
For spring green-up, fertilize the lawn after aerating. Follow .
Overseeding a lawn is advised on older, worn-out, patchy lawns. Match your existing lawn grass seed type to seed varieties offered in local garden centers. Look for seed that grows well in your area and types for different growing conditions (sunny, shady, more drought-tolerant, etc.).
Cool-season grass types such as Kentucky bluegrass can be overseeded now through early fall. Warm-season grass such as buffalo grass can be overseeded from late May to early July.
If a pre-emergent lawn product was used recently for weed control, do not overseed the area for at least six weeks because these products inhibit seed germination (including grass seed).
Shallow (light) power raking helps remove thatch buildup on cool-season grasses, but be careful not to over-rake, which can damage lawns. Toss the thatched organic materials into the compost pile.
Schedule the automatic sprinkler turn-on appointment.
Plant
Plant the hardiest cool-season crops so they get growing — potatoes, onion sets, shallots, direct seed — peas, turnips, leeks, Asian greens, arugula, parsnips, radish, spinach and kale. Plant broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and kohlrabi transplants versus direct seeding for quicker spring growth and harvest before hot weather sets in.
Purchase asparagus, rhubarb and horseradish crowns from the garden center and plant during the early spring. Choose your sunny site carefully — these delicious long-lasting perennial vegetables do not like to be moved.
Bare root fruits and some perennials have arrived in garden centers, including perennial strawberries, grapes, raspberries and blackberries. Plant right away before they leaf out.
Direct seed outside cool-season blooming annuals in planting beds or tucked among emerging perennials — larkspur, sweet pea, bachelor’s buttons and snapdragons.
Plant container-grown and balled-and-burlapped trees and shrubs, including bare root roses. Planting in early spring will give them time to establish before summer hot weather.
Quick Garden Tip
Change your method of opening heavy bags of mulch or soil to save your back. Instead of opening one end then lifting the bag to empty the contents, lay the bag flat (close to where you’ll empty it) and cut a slit side to side in the middle of the bag. Roll the bag over, grab both ends and lift up. The contents pour easily out of the bag.
Betty Cahill,
