Pre-covid, my husband and I regularly hosted parties celebrating holidays, birthdays, and graduations. Friends and family gathered for lively conversation, good food, and lots of laughter. After everyone would head home, my husband and I began the process of cleaning up. Although now I regularly go to sleep with a few dishes in the sink, the idea of waking up and spending several hours cleaning motivated me to just get it done. Sleeping in the next day was the reward.
While we have been enjoying staying inside our homes this winter, a party has been taking place in our yards. Bunnies, squirrels, heavy snow, and even the wind have been creating a situation that we need to clean up. Spring yard cleanup, while not necessarily enjoyable, is a must do gardening chore. The reward will come in the form of spring and summer days spent admiring a beautiful, healthy, and well-maintained yard.
The timing of the spring cleanup of your planting beds is critical. It should be done when the ground has thawed and is relatively dry. Wet soil is easily compacted. Walking on or working in wet soil causes compaction, thus ruining the structure of the soil.
Evaluating and pruning perennial flowers in the spring will allow those flowers to flourish. Dead foliage can harbor diseases and should be removed before the growing season begins. Most perennial flowers die back to the ground each year. If they were not cutback in the fall, then they most likely should be cut back now. Pruning is best done using hand or scissor pruners. You may also find that the foliage can simply be removed using a flexible rake. Although how much foliage that should be cut back varies between plant species, a general rule of thumb is to cut back the plants to about 2ā above the ground. If the foliage on evergreen or semi-evergreen perennials still looks good, then they may not need to be cut back at all.
Ornamental grasses that were not cut back in the fall should be cut back now. It is much easier to cut these back before they start sprouting new green blades of grass. Most grasses can be cutback to about 3ā above the ground. When cutting the foliage, be sure to note any bare spots near the base of the plant. Bare or open area in the center may be a sign that the grass needs to be divided. Generally, ornamental grasses should be divided every 3-5 years.
The evaluation and pruning of shrubs is often on the top of every gardenerās spring clean up checklist. Summer flowering shrubs such as spirea, potentilla and rose of Sharon can be pruned now. If some of your shrubs are particularly woody, you may want to try rejuvenation pruning. This is the process of pruning the entire plant down to the ground in hopes that it will come back healthier. There is always a chance that this will not work and you will be left with a misshapen or dead plant. Regular pruning to maintain a certain height or width of a plant usually involves pruning off a few inches of new growth.
Spading the edges of your landscaping beds is the most physically demanding spring gardening chore. This involves methodically removing a very small portion of grass at the front of the landscaping beds. This is the area where the mulched area meets the lawn. The advantages of spading (edging) include minimizing the amount of grass that migrates into your planting bed, controlling erosion, ease of mowing, and creating a neater appearance. The disadvantage is that your landscaping beds are enlarged every time this is done. This can be mitigated by spreading a few rolls of sod if your planting beds are getting too large. Using a sharp, heavy duty gardening spade will make this chore a bit easier.
Removing weeds and excess leaves gives your beds the fresh start that they need to allow your plants to flourish. Weeds take valuable nutrients and water away from your flowers, shrubs, and trees and should be removed not only in the spring but throughout the summer and fall as well. Pre-emergent herbicides such as preen or corn gluten can be put down to help to minimize the amount of weeds that pop up in your planting areas.
Winterization materials such as burlap, rose cones, tree wrap, or excess mulch that was installed in the fall should be removed in early spring. Seasonal plants and dƩcor should also be removed.
The key to repairing animal damage is often realizing that it occurred. Rabbits spend the winter nibbling on our shrubs, leaving the ends of woody branches cut on a 45-degree angle. Although not as common, they also do eat around the entire circumference of the branches causing girdling. The evidence that they leave behind in the form of rabbit pellets can help to confirm suspected damage. Shrubs damaged by rabbits should be pruned to correct any malformation and removing the damaged branches.
Ice, wind, and snow can cause branches on both trees and shrubs to break. By pruning the effected branches back to the main trunk, you will be allowing the plant to heal and recover from the damage. If entire plants have shifted over the winter, you may need to stake them.
Kathleen Carr is the owner of The Growing Scene, Inc., a garden center and landscaping company. She can be reached by calling 815-923-7322 or emailing her at Kathleen@thegrowingscene.com. Have a gardening question? Please contact her. She may address it in an upcoming column.
