Our Garden by Linda Cobb

Our Garden in Spring

It has been pretty cold this season, and winter is still knocking on our door.  It is time to make a list and get ready to clean up outside.  The next time there is a semi-warm day, out you go into the garden and start to clean up.  The first step is to get out that blower and get rid of all of those fallen leaves that have been blown all over.  Then you need to trim back some of those perennials.  Trim back the old foliage of the daylillies, hardy ferns, perennials and the like.  Trim off all of those dried hydrangea blooms, trim back some of the ornamental grasses.  Trim the roses back severly, almost one third or half of their height.  After all of this is finished you will feel better and it will certainly look better as you walk through the garden.
If you had amaryllis blooming all over your house during the holidays here is a quick and simple way to continue to enjoy them. Let the bulb flower, as it will send up two flower spikes.  Each spike will have 2, 3, or 4 flowers on it. After the stalk blooms, cut it off at bulb level.  Let it grow some leaves (They will be skinny ribbon like leaves). Keep the leaves on the plant and keep it watered in bright light for about a month. Then take the bulb out of the pot and wash off the dirt. Cut the leaves off.  Lay the bulb out in the garage and let it dry out. Store the bulb in a brown paper bag like a lunch bag for several months (3 to 6 months) in the garage. In the springtime, plant the bulb out into the garden in full sun, in the middle of the bed. Your bulb will adapt and bloom every year about july or august.  Try it, and one day that amaryllis will surprise you with an awesome bloom that you had forgotten about.  That is why bulbs are such a delight.  You plant them, forget about them, and then they surprize you by showing up and blooming.
Your garden will need its nutrition this spring, so make a list of the nutrients you will need.  Every year I get hundreds of requests for my special perennial feed formula.  So I am going to share it with you.  What do I put it on?  All of my perennials get it, all of my flowering vines get it, all of my hydrangeas, peonies, and other flowering shrubs get it.  My roses get another feeding mix, though.  So every early March I got out a big wheel barrel and in it I mix one third peat moss, one third cottonseed meal (this is a long term organic feed), and one third 10-10-10 with trace elements.  Mix it all up and apply the feeding formula to the drip line of the plant.  What is the dripline?  It is where the water falls off of the plant. It falls off the leaves in a big ring around the plant.  Do not put any of this feed formula on the leaves of the plant.  This is a very strong feeding formula and getting it on the leaves of the plants will kill the leaf but not the plant. I apply this feed only once a year, but I do every year without fail. How much I apply depends on how big the plant is.  A hydrangea bush gets about one to two cups of the feed.  A small perennial like a daylilly gets about three fourths of a cup.  Using this feeding formula will make your plants jump up and yell yahoo!
Finally, there are alot of new plant introductions in all of those mail order catalogs you are getting in the mail.  It is time to place those orders now so you will have lots of new and interesting things to put into your garden.  I try to grow at least ten now plants every year so it will keep my garden fresh, new, and interesting.  Be sure to log onto www.davidaustinroses.com and click on the American flag to check out their new roses they are offering this year. Of course, I ordered all of the new introductions and am especially excited to grow their new one, Munstead Wood.  It is a deep crimson rose with that fabulous shape.  Another great website, for unusual and quality plants also, is www.plantdelightnursery.com.  Agaves are on the cutting edge lately and I have started a huge collection of potted agaves.  They will blow your mind.  Proven Winners introduced an agave called ‘Rasta Man’ and it is killer cool.  Check them out and start your own collection.

Take a deep breath and look forward to spring.  Remember all the bulb planting you did last fall.  Spring is when it will pay off, big time.  I planted over 1000 bulbs here in my garden for this spring, so I cannot wait to see how it will look.  If you were lazy, buy some bulbs and force them in a saucer of rocks and water.  Just stand the bulb up, pointed side up.  Keep it watered and it will bloom.  Enjoy getting ready for spring! 

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