Waking up your Garden

It seems that we are we're being launched into spring rather fast this year. No slow rise and shine, but maybe an abrupt temperature swing from 20 to 60 in blink of an eye.

So what does that mean to your garden?

If you are gardening for pollinators, you still need to go slow. If you left your leaves in the garden last year, don't do a strenuous one-day clean-up. Go slow. Note that you should not walk on the garden if the ground is damp. You could compact and ruin the soil. That doesn't mean clean-up is off-limits; it's just a work around by using long-handle rakes, staying on the perimeter of the garden and waiting for the soil to dry out a bit.

As the daytime temps become consistent, around 50, it's safe to get into the garden for spring clean-up. However, for all the itty bitty critters (read that as insects) who have been making homes in the pithy stems of coneflower and penstemon, you must go slow.

Start by cutting some of the tall plants back. You can shake the stems. That might wake up insects. Leave those cut stems in an area of the garden that's out of your way, but so the insects have a chance to get out of their cozy homes.

You can also start to lift layers of leaves out of the garden this early, too.

Is there a magic number of days or protocol to all of this? No. Use your own judgment, but again, even if spring seems to be barging in, go a little slower for the sake of pollinators.