Amid a pandemic, a garden explosion

Mon. Jun. 1, 2020

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Amid a pandemic, a garden explosion

I visited a few local garden centers last weekend to buy my tomato and pepper plants. They were all nearly sold out! The employees said many folks bought too early, even when they were encouraged to be careful with those plants, the new vegetable gardeners had to restock after planting them and not covering their tender little leaves.

three tomato plants I could find! Not the ones I wanted but they’ll do…

First thing I’ll say to that is, don’t get discouraged!!! No one thought we’d have record lows.

What I need to add is, perhaps lower your expectations or at least don’t get discouraged if your garden doesn’t deliver as you had hoped. Then again, maybe you’ll rock it.

Gardening is fickle, some years are better than others, but we garden on! The other thing I noted was how many fewer perennials and shrubs were available.

Again, a garden explosion! I love that and I want to help make sure everyone is as successful as they can be. So root prune those shrubs and trees. Any circling roots around your perennials out of the pot need to be nipped and snipped.  About 4:20 min. in is where I talk about root pruning!  but the whole video is worth a watch! 

Give plenty of planting room and remember to plant to the mature size.  Let’s face it, most of us like instant gratification. Remember: The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap!

Next Spring I will divide the blackeyed susans. The iron sculpture you can clearly see in the pic below is also buried in this pic!
Blackeyed Susan 5-30-20 there are a few other plants scattered about