Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn.
~Quoted by Lewis Grizzard in Kathy Sue Loudermilk, I Love You
Tackling landscape projects and playing in the garden seem to tantalize in the far off future. Yet spring is quietly slipping into the garden in the tender tips of bulbs peeking out of the bare ground. So get ready!
Call a landscaping company for consults, designs, and estimates now because watch out! When the weather feels like spring they will be booking work into June.
Sharpen, repair, and clean tools. Have lawn mowers and weed eaters serviced. Replace tools, soils, fertilizers and other products.
Get out on those first few warm days and stretch! Rake leaves out of corners, cut down those last perennials or the grasses that have completely flopped over. Do some spring cleaning in the garden.
With every 50 plus degree day the itch to start planting grows. So what can you plant early and what should you wait to purchase? When are the plants you want available at nurseries?
Annuals – They say Mother’s Day to plant annuals, but pay attention to Mother Nature. You need the ground warm for those tender roots. If you cannot wait any longer for color then plant pansies and violas in March. They will get you through until May.
Vegetable plants are also a Mother’s Day planting date, but again watch the temperatures and how warm the ground is becoming. For vegetable seeds check the back of the packet. Seeds are a great kid project; plant cilantro, lettuce, or nasturtium which grow quickly and easily.
Perennials are available in April and can be planted in early spring depending again on Mother Nature and how far up the perennial is in its pot. Even if a new perennial does get zapped by frost after planting it should recover nicely.
Trees and shrubs you can plant as long as the ground is not frozen and you can dig a hole. There are some exceptions to that rule, examples would be any plant that is on the edge of its planting zone to begin with (in the Cincinnati area Crape Myrtles fall into that category).
Purchase ornamental grasses when you can see the new foliage and you know you are getting a healthy specimen. They will be available later in the spring season since they take a bit longer to get going.
Watch carefully and enjoy, spring is a quiet guest until she suddenly and spectacularly becomes the belle of the ball.