Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Garden tool prep and pruning out damage
We’ve talked a lot about plants this week but, of course, if your soil is just too soggy, consider garden tool prep. At least lovingly tending to the tools gets us closer to the garden!
Take some steel wool to those trowels, a file to your pruners and examine tools for any repair or, perhaps replacement!
You can prune out dead or damaged branches any time…
My lilac always suffers damage due to it’s placement under a porch eave…
Panicle and Smooth hydrangeas can be pruned now if their buds aren’t open at all. A How-To from Proven Winners
You can add organic matter to your garden beds right now. Actually there’s never a bad time to add organic matter but with nothing planted, you can toss it all willy nilly and LIGHTLY rake it out.
Speaking of LIGHTLY raking things out, do that with any snow piles, if you have piles of leaves, get those raked up too.
Remove winter mulch. If you added it for strawberries, tender perennials or extra protection for newly planted shrubs, it’s time to lift it out. We aren’t likely to experience any hard frosts below 28 degrees. The caveat to that, is that it’s snowing like mad as I write this one (Easter Sunday 2020) so you might want to keep the mulch nearby, just in case! Row covers are another way to protect your plants. I’ve used these for bug protection too.
