Spring garden prep: What to do before growing season gets underway
It’s been a pretty poor excuse for a winter in Western Pennsylvania, but Mother Nature still could have a few frosts and snowflakes up her sleeve.
That means gardeners eager to get out there and get planting need to exercise a little patience.
“The biggest thing I can tell people is not to be in a hurry, and it’s difficult for me to say, because I make money off of people being in a hurry,” said Jason Wilkinson, owner of Jason Wilkinson Nursery in Hempfield. “There is still going to be a lot of freezing and a lot of frost.”
On average, the area’s last frost comes in mid-May, said Mandy Smith, Penn State Extension Master Gardener coordinator for Westmoreland County.
“I do understand why people get in a hurry,” Wilkinson said. “They’ve been inside all winter, and they have cabin fever. They want to get outside and get stuff done, but they want to be careful with planting too early.”
While it’s too early to do much planting, March is a good time for planning and preparing for the growing season ahead.
A first step can be to make sure garden tools are cleaned and sharpened. Then take a walk around the yard and garden to assess what needs to be done.
“It’s just kind of a waiting game,” said Jean Brozack of Ligonier, who tends several raised vegetable and flower beds with her husband, Vince. “We’ll clean out beds, get them ready and dig in a quick layer of mulch.”
Having soil tested is an important part of spring garden prep, Smith said. Fall is the best time to test soil, but spring is secondbest, so there is time to amend as needed before planting.
Soil test kits are available from county Extension offices and some garden centers. Information is available at agsci.psu.edu.
“As a rule of thumb, it’s always safe to add some gypsum and lime, because we are in a naturally acidic place with all the rain we get,” said Michelle Kubrick, manager/operator at Kubrick Brothers Garden Center in New Kensington. “The lime will sweeten your soil, depending on what you’re growing that season. Gypsum helps break down clay. And here in good old PA, we have a lot of clay.
“And we always recommend a little bit of sand for drainage.”
Too wet, too dry? Moisture is another thing to consider when assessing soil, Wilkinson said.
“If the garden is in an area that’s extremely wet, now is the time to think about getting some drainage around it,” Wilkinson said. “If they’ve had a hard time keeping it watered, now is the time to think about running a water line to that area.
“That’s something people might not think about until everything is already in the ground.”
You can remove any dead or damaged wood from shrubs and small trees before they start leafing out, Smith said. For larger trees, she recommends leaving the job to a certified arborist.
The International Society of Arboculture maintains a list of tree care providers at treesaregood.org.
“The only things not to prune are plants that bloom early in the spring,” said retired Master Gardener Elizabeth Pesci of Hempfield. “They’ve had their buds on since last August or September. If you prune it back, you’re cutting off this year’s flower.
“If it blooms April to June, then probably don’t prune it until after it’s bloomed,” she said.
If you didn’t trim your deciduous shrubs in the fall, it’s time to trim them back by about one-third, Kubrick said.
“Don’t wait too long or they’ll start budding. We want them to grow from the bottom and not the top,” she said.
As things start to grow, you’ll notice if plants are coming back or if they have died.
“Spring is a great time to assess why something didn’t work or to bring something else in if needed,” Smith said.
Check to see if perennials have gotten too big for their space, and mark what might need to be divided.
“Divide and transplant perennials while they’re still dormant, because they won’t be stressed like they would be in their active growth stage,” Smith said.
Perennial care In recent years, experts have advised against raking leaves and other debris in the fall and to leave spent perennial blooms and stalks until spring. The debris provides cover for overwintering insects, while flower seeds will feed the birds.
“More and more research from different organizations states that leaving the leaves and stems is wonderful for our pollinator friends, in particular,” Smith said. “Wait until there are steady warm days to clean up.”
Many perennials have hollow stems that bees and other insects use as winter homes. Insects might be out foraging on a 70-degree day, but they’ll need the cover when the temperature drops back below 30.
“If people can hold off until spring really gets here and the warm days are really steady, that will be great for all those insects when they’re moving around and not overwintering anymore,” Smith said.
The leaves and debris also provide frost protection for earlyblooming flowers, Wilkinson said.
Pesci is among those who have moved their perennial cleanup from fall to spring.
“In the past several years, we’re more aware of bees and pollinators losing their habitat, and many of our native bees and pollinators winter over in the debris or the ground,” she said. “Since we’ve become more aware of that, I try to cut less back in the fall.
“Things that bloom early, I’m cutting in the fall. Things that bloom later, I give insects that live in them time to do their thing before I cut them.”
Brozack also tends to her spent perennials in the spring.
“I like to leave as much as I can for the little foragers that are around,” she said. “In the echinacea, the little wrens will be on the flowers, pecking away at the seeds.”
What you do want to remove now are any winter-hardy weeds.
“Weeds grow really well in the winter. As soon as the ground is not frozen, you can start pulling weeds,” Pesci said.
Hairy bittercress has been a problem in this area in recent years, Smith said.
“You get a couple warm days and it will send out its flower, and a couple days later it will send out its seeds — and it has hundreds of seeds. Now is a good time to get rid of that,” she said.
Chickweed and garlic mustard are other invasive plants that should be pulled now before they flower, she added.
Early planting Brozack said she goes by the old farmers’ practice of planting peas by St. Patrick’s Day.
“We have a variety of early spring veggies — peas, lettuce, Swiss chard, kale, beets — those I try to get in by St. Patrick’s Day,” she said. “I go by the old lore, and it just seems to work — at least for me.”
Those cold-weather crops — also including spinach, onions and radishes — can be started indoors or sown directly into the garden, Smith said.
“If we get a snow or any freezing nights, people can use row cover cloths to protect them,” she said. “Some people like to use cold frames to start seeds. Just remove the top when it gets too warm, and you can use it like a raised bed.”
For planting other flowers and vegetables, Smith suggests consulting the USDA Hardiness Zone Map at usda.gov for information on average annual temperatures, which help determine which plants are likely to thrive in their location.
“I tell people to wait until the last week of March, first week of April, and at that point in time start looking ahead at the 10-day forecast and see what that shows,” Wilkinson said. “If it’s showing warmer temperatures, then you can start getting in the mood to plant.
“If the 10- or 14-day forecast still shows lows in the 20s, then you definitely want to avoid planting,” he said. “In this area, it’s not uncommon to get frost on Mother’s Day.”
A few days one way or the other won’t have much effect on the final result, he said.
“If you plant your tomatoes two weeks earlier than your neighbors, if they don’t get killed by frost, they’re still going to be ready at the same time that your neighbors’ are.”