Spring Gardening

The recent bitterly cold winter is thankfully (hopefully) now a distant memory. I have been a Paxton resident for just over 10 years and I’m ready to enjoy another spring in my perennial garden. As we can see now, nature never disappoints and our gardens are on the verge of giving us another incredible array of color. It is amazing how a bare winter landscape can produce so many different shapes and colors in spring and summer. (See photos above)

I enjoy perennials as they offer plants suitable for various environmental conditions ranging from full sun to heavy shade. Each growing year provides a different set of climate conditions. With proper care and attention, once a bed is created you can look forward to the bounty of color that will follow.

As gardeners, we like to be creative and each spring or fall adjustments can be made to the arrangement of different varieties within each area. There are numerous ways of making changes:

• Moving certain varieties that don’t quite fit the color scheme or growth pattern.

• Splitting/dividing a variety prior to moving.

• Simply buying another item to add to the mix or trading plants with another avid gardener.

While most of my plant material is of the perennial type, around this time of year I sometimes use annual varieties to add to the array of color for a more beautiful summer display. A flat of impatiens/petunias/zinnias/dianthus, for example, can add to the color mix within a given area. 

It’s also fun to make containers full of perennials and annuals to add to your deck or patio display. If planting a selection of pots together, I recommend creating the display by first ‘planting’ the empty pots, removing them and then putting the plant’s root ball in the hole that remains. This will allow for good root penetration into the new container environment. Just pushing roots into a container is a guarantee of unsatisfactory growth of the arrangement. 

At this time of year, it’s important to remove weeds that will soon be in serious competition with your favorite plants. Simply hand-pulling the weeds or cultivating the soil between the plants is highly recommended. 

Preventative pest and disease control NOW is also something I strongly advise. Here are materials that I find useful for specific problems:

• Aphids (BioAdvanced All-in-One Concentrate Rose & Flower Care)

• Drench the soil around each plant (roses, lavender, peonies, asters, and hollyhocks are examples of specific aphid-susceptible varieties).

Mildew (Ferti-Lome Systemic II Liquid Fungicide) – Spray early in the plant’s life (asters, phlox, bee balm, peonies, rudbeckia, sedum).

For mosquito and tick control I use Cutter Backyard Bug Control in my yard.

IMPORTANT: Always follow safety precautions and label recommendations.

I am a member of Paxton Garden Club, and we will be having our Annual Plant Sale on Saturday, June 6, on the Paxton Common. There will be a range of perennials, vegetables, herbs, and annuals, all at reasonable prices, which could add to your gardening enjoyment.  W

Roger McGaughery was educated in Northern Ireland and received a Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Horticultural Science from Reading University in England. He has 50 years of experience working in the greenhouse industry in England and America.