Spring loaded
Invest in the right plants and equipment now and reap benefits on warmer days
AFTER a bitterly cold snap, it was a pleasure to feel the rise in temperatures and a sense that spring may be on the way. So whether you are working from home and need a little break from staring at the computer or you haven’t been doing much gardening over the winter, it’s time to venture outdoors!
First of all, take stock of your equipment. Good tools will make light work of heavy jobs. A sharp and strong pair of secateurs is an invaluable tool for pruning jobs. The secateurs I’d recommend are the Classic Felco No 4 and they will last a lifetime. Spades, shovels and forks should have long handles which will save your back from too much bending. Keep a stiff brush and clean rags in your garage or potting shed to brush soil or garden debris off the tools after use. A quick wipe with the cloth prolongs the life and performance of your tools.
A spongy mat or kneeler can be a great benefit if you’re on your knees for hours on end planting or weeding. A sharp pair of garden shears are good for trimming hedges and cutting back larger areas of plant growth. They’re typically used for cutting back or shaping shrubs and ornamental grasses, and cutting back flowering plants after blooming season.
It’s handy to have a large durable bucket to collect weeds, mix compost and fertilizer in and drop damaging snails and slugs into.
Check your lawnmower engine and if necessary have it serviced before grass growth takes off. Always change the oil before grass cutting gets underway. If you haven’t been out much, there is probably a lot of tidying up to do, cutting back those decayed perennials, weeding and mulching.
If you are working in n areasar areas where you have spring prin ng bulbs emerging, you’ll l willw will need to adopt a delicate lic cate approach so as not t to damage new foliage. It’s s a job I love – I pop my earea arphones in and enjoy ge getetting to grips with the bo bororders again, usually y accompanied by a robin redbreast on the lookout for worms.
As the soil thaws, it’s a good time to do some moving of deciduous shrubs while they are still dormant. All of us make mistakes – perhaps planting too close to another shrub or simply in the wrong place so now’s the time to shift things around. Replant at the same depth as the plant was in its previous position as planting too deep can kill trees and shrubs.
Depending on the size of the shrub, this can be hard work so pace yourself and be realistic about whatwhat what you y can achieve or what you will ne need ed assistance with. Fe February ebru and March are rea really ally an excellent time of ye yeear year to prune many shrubs to oe ensure they look and pe perform erf their best for the re rest est of the year.
When shrubs are leafless, it’s much easier to assess their overall outline and see exactly what you are doing with them.
To encourage the best flowering possible on deciduous shrubs that flower on new wood later in the summer, an annual shearing is necessary. Established deciduous flowering shrubs should be pruned back now to 2-3 buds of the previous season’s growth and remove about a fifth of the old stems.
This will help encourage the shrub to produce some vigorous shoots that will carry flowers in summer such as buddleja davidii, deciduous ceanothus, perovskia, ceratostigma, cotinus, hardy fuchsia, lavatera and spiraea japonica.
What you don’t want to do is to remove flower buds that are about to open – eg forsythia, ribes and kerria, so leave these shrubs alone until after they have flowered.
Once you get out, you’ll see there’s plenty to do – happy gardening!