PLAN NOW FOR A SPECTACULAR SPRING
Feature story
Even though the weather outside is finally starting to get a little frightful, that doesn’t mean it’s a good time to just ignore the yard and garden.
As a matter of fact, the next few weeks are a real good time to start preparations for the coming spring.
“Basically, you want to prep your soil for next year,” said Kimberly Reaume, owner of Alameda Greenhouse.
Adding mulch and compost this time of year not only helps the soil, but doing it early helps the compounds break down and be prepared to receiver new plants in the springtime, she said.
And spreading mulch and compost around existing plants can help better weather the bitter elements, said Aaron Lamb, manager at the Santa Ana Garden Center and Native Plant Nursery.
“If your yard is open and bare, a good layer of mulch on the plants will help the plants,” he said. “Leaf litter also helps insulate plants during the winter, and you should spread mulch at least two inches thick around different plants.”
In garden areas, it’s a good time to start getting the soil ready.
“In your vegetable gardens, you get it cleaned up, turn over the soils and layer in new compost,” Lamb said.
This has the added benefit of being aesthetically pleasing, he said.
“It all depends on the individual and what they like for a look,” Lamb said. “I like the different bark mulches. I like the more natural looking, smaller or medium bark is
my personal preference but if people like the cedar mulches, that’s more of a personal preference. All of them over time will break down and fade with the sun. As they break down it will help to feed soil and create better soil structure. There’s also pecan shell mulch that is available. It is a really reddish brown color. Any sort of mulch like that would be fine. If you’re one that’s doing the real clean xeric yards, gravel is fine.
Reaume recommends working in a product called Azomite now.
“It’s got over 77 trace elements and it’s natural,” she said.
The product is culled from an ancient and unique mineral deposit in Utah and is frequently used as a feed additive and soil remineralizer for plants, improving root systems, yields and general plant vigor in a variety of field crops and garden vegetables.
This also may be the time to prune plants that are not early spring bloomers, Lamb said.
“You can do some pruning of things, trees and shrubs that have started to go dormant,” he said. “You can really do that any point during this season. Once upon a time, there was a push to prune plants in winter, but as time has gone on, arborists have found that it may be beneficial for pruning during the growing season. But it may be easier this time of year because the leaves are off the trees and it makes it easier to see and for clean up.”
That being said, Reaume added, there are some plants that gardeners should wait before pruning.
“You don’t want to prune spring flowering ornamentals,” she said. “Those are to be pruned next year. Next year’s flowering occurs on this year’s wood.”
So wait to cut plants like butterfly bushes, forsythias and lilacs.
Likewise, wait to prune rose bushes and grapevines.
“You prune those the third week of March,” Reaume said.
But, this is also the time to spray trees and plants with dormant oil, she said.
“What that does is kill the eggs or larvae that are on the plants so the insects cannot emerge when the weather warms up,” Reaume said.
Dormant oil acts against most species of mites and scales, including some activity on eggs; minimal likelihood of insects or mites developing resistance; generally less harmful to beneficial insects and mites than other pesticides and relatively safe to birds, humans, and other mammals.
When it comes to smaller perennials, Lamb said it doesn’t hurt to trim off the tops now.
“It’s not going to hurt the plants, but you can leave it until later in winter,” he said. “The seeds of the old dead plants that have died back or the grasses are real beneficial for birds and other wildlife, so I like to leave it until later. For birders, by allowing there to be a little bit more of the seed heads, and varied and more leaf litter, you may get more action when it comes to the birds.”
Then again, Lamb added, particularly in milder winters such as we have experienced so far, the leaf litter can harbor aphids and pesky spider mites.
“So by cleaning that stuff up, you help yourself avoid more insect problems coming into the spring and summer,” he said.
It’s a good time to start any planning done, as well as getting the tools of the trade ready to go.
“Cleaning tools and oiling tools is good to get done,” she said. “And if there is more planting to do next spring, start on designing and mapping out what you want and where you want it. That way when it’s spring you can get right on it.”