One of my favorite gardening authors, Margaret Roach, sends out an informative as well as entertaining newsletter, “A Way to Garden.” She always reminds gardeners that we need to enjoy what we do as well as have fun while we are doing it!
In her latest newsletter she provides 10 strategies to utilize in the crazy month of April that includes:
1. Start cleanup near the house. Tidying beds along the most-traveled front walkway early reminds me that I can do this, a little at a time. Work out from home base.
2. “Spot clean” key areas – again, working on first things first. Why prep the tomato row when you haven’t even planted the peas or spinach? Spot clean targeted areas so that earliest crops can get sown.
3. Gently remove matted leaves to uncover early spring ornamentals first, such as emerging spring bulbs and ephemerals, even if you can’t stop to clean the whole bed.
4. Stay on track with seed-starting. Make a chart of what to sow when, indoors or out, or organize packets week-by-week, in an accordion file or recipe-card box. Move any packet that’s best sown a little at a time ahead two weeks in the filing system after you use it, to plan for a staggered supply of salads, carrots, radishes and such.
5. Make space in the compost heap for incoming debris you’ll be generating fast. Extract and preferably screen finished material from the bottom to topdress beds as you clean them.
6. Order mulch now, preferably a bulk delivery – skipping all those plastic bags.
7. Empty nest boxes of old nests, and maybe add more birdhouses.
8. Muck out water gardens, removing floating de-icers. Get pumps and filters going again.
9. While doing all that: Never walk, or work, in mucky soil. Roach stays off soft, and semi-frozen lawns, too, delaying some chores. She says that you can do the tasks in another week, but she can’t easily fix soil turned to “concrete”.
10. Treat yourself to a little color-again, for encouragement. Roach likes big bowls of pansies or violas to cheer her on in April, because the list can feel daunting, especially in years when winter sticks around a little too long!
On July 18,2019, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed House Bill 59 of the 133 General Assembly into law, making Ohio one of the first states in the country to have an entire month dedicated to our native plants.
There are many advantages to planting native plants. Visit the website www.OhioNativePlantMonth.org to learn more about some of these benefits.
Be sure to mark your calendars for our Plant Sale on Saturday, May 11. Location: Clinton County Annex Building, Community Room, 111 S. Nelson Ave., Wilmington. The sale runs from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. We hope to see you there!
My daily walk to the mailbox has me eyeing all the weeds coming up in my flower beds. I ran across an interesting quote the other day, “A weed is simply a plant that wants to grow where people want something else.”
