{"id":2351,"date":"2018-02-26T06:55:26","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T14:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=2351"},"modified":"2018-02-26T06:55:26","modified_gmt":"2018-02-26T14:55:26","slug":"warming-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/warming-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Warming Up"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Awake<\/a>
Awake in November–‘Potter’s Prelude’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At this time of year, all it takes is a few balmy days to trigger the gardening itch.\u00a0 As soon as the temperature hovers above 50 degrees and the wind abandons howling in favor of murmuring, I have one foot out the door.<\/p>\n

I am fooling myself, of course. \u00a0February thaws are among of Nature\u2019s greatest teases and usually give way to renewed Arctic blasts, \u201cwintery mix\u201d onslaughts and successions of gray days.<\/p>\n

My garden\u2014front and back\u2014is a scene of horticultural carnage, strewn with dead leaves, broken branches, desiccated stalks and other souvenirs of wintery weather and neglected clean-up.\u00a0 The overgrown shrubs look haggard, with no greenery to soften harsh lines or hide long dead flowerheads.\u00a0 Evergreen hollies and euonymus cling faithfully to their green leaves, providing shelter for the birds and a reminder that life goes on, even when the temperature goes down. \u00a0Unfazed by even the worst weather, stalwart agave sports long fibrous leaves that defy the elements.<\/p>\n

As I search around for the misplaced mate of my best garden glove and attempt to locate the sharpening tool for my Felco pruners, I remind myself of the physicians\u2019 and gardeners\u2019 credo: \u201cAbove all, do no harm.\u201d\u00a0 Just because a late winter thaw has taken hold, doesn\u2019t mean that you should start an entire spring clean-up.\u00a0 Instead, take care of chores that will make you feel productive now and help the plants later on.<\/p>\n

If you applied winter mulch in the late fall, keep it in place until the last frost date passes for your area.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t know your last frost date, find it online at https:\/\/davesgarden.com\/guides\/freeze-frost-dates\/<\/a>.\u00a0 Printed guides, like the time-honored Old Farmer\u2019s Almanac,<\/em> are also likely to carry this information.\u00a0 Mulches are insulating blankets for the soil, protecting the slumbering plants from sudden freezes and thaws.\u00a0 Don\u2019t remove them until spring has truly sprung.\u00a0 The same goes for winter wrappings on plants like roses and fig trees that you may have swathed for protection against the cold.<\/p>\n

If you neglected to mulch, but allowed \u201clazy man\u2019s mulch\u201d, otherwise known as dead leaves, accumulate in the beds and borders, follow the same rule as for more expensive mulch.\u00a0 Insulation is insulation, even if it isn\u2019t glamorous.<\/p>\n

If time is short, pick up sticks, branches and debris from your lawn and garden.\u00a0 Of course there will be more of the same in four week\u2019s time, but at least you have given yourself a head start.\u00a0 If the yard is not too muddy, you can also gently rake or blow away the dead leaves lingering on the grass.<\/p>\n

Many of us have hydrangeas and many of those hydrangeas are still burdened with the sad remnants of the flowers that bloomed so abundantly last summer.\u00a0 If you are in the pruning frame of mind, nip off only the dead flowerheads.\u00a0 To indulge in further pruning at this early stage might result in the loss of buds that will produce next summer\u2019s hydrangea blooms.\u00a0 If your garden is home to other spring-blooming shrubs, keep your pruning urges in check until after they flower later on.\u00a0 Hold off on rose pruning until at least St. Patrick\u2019s Day, depending on when early spring starts in your part of the world.<\/p>\n

All dead stalks of perennials and annuals are fair game now and a whacking session can make the garden look infinitely better.\u00a0 If you left the flower stalks on plants like echinacea or coreopsis to supply fall and early winter seeds to the birds, pat yourself on the back.\u00a0 The seed heads have served their purpose and are ready to be lopped off and sent to the compost pile.<\/p>\n

Though it isn\u2019t time to removed mulches, it is time to clear away mulch, leaves or debris from the areas closest to early risers like snowdrops, winter aconite and hellebores.\u00a0 Be gentle about this, because the goal is to give the small plants a little elbow room and make it easier for garden visitors to see them.\u00a0 You can even dispense with tools and simply clear the spaces by moving the leaves aside with your hands.<\/p>\n

Of course, you can always do what the garden mavens recommend and spend these late winter days cleaning your tools and whittling down your catalog and internet orders to something that you can almost afford.\u00a0 I recommend waiting until the sleet resumes for that.\u00a0 When it\u2019s balmy, get outside.<\/p>\n

\"Clear<\/a>
Clear debris from around the earliest bloomers, including Christmas rose<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At this time of year, all it takes is a few balmy days to trigger the gardening itch.\u00a0 As soon as the temperature hovers above 50 degrees and the wind abandons howling in favor of murmuring, I have one foot out the door. I am fooling myself, of course. \u00a0February thaws are among of Nature\u2019s … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,5],"tags":[1821,371,85,32,1820,12,370],"class_list":["post-2351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-winter","tag-early-spring-gardening","tag-galanthus","tag-garden-maintenance","tag-hellebores","tag-late-winter-gardening","tag-mulch","tag-snowdrops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2351"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2352,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2351\/revisions\/2352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}