DO NOW: Spring gardening tips

• Equipment: All gardeners want to start the season off right. A great way to do that is by sharpening your tools and making sure that your lawncare equipment is in perfect working order. With all the time you save, you’ll be relaxing in your garden before you know it.

• Pruning: A good maintenance routine will keep your garden in tiptop shape. While pruning, help bottom branches receive adequate sunlight. As blooms fade from spring flowering bulbs like daffodils and hyacinths, cut their stalks back to the ground. Try to be patient and wait to cut foliage until it dies on its own. These plants require their leaves to produce bulbs hearty enough to bloom again next season. Prune summer flowering shrubs now to encourage new growth and flower buds.

• Mulch: It’s going to be a hot summer, so give your plants every advantage. Help them absorb water by adding a 3″ layer of mulch to key gardening locations in your yard. Shrubs and perennials, especially, benefit from this step, but so does the soil in areas where you haven’t yet planted.

• Weeding: April showers bring May flowers…and weeds. While rainy season is still in effect, rid your yard of weeds most easily while the soil is still wet. Thankfully, this necessary evil can then do some good. Small weeds that haven’t seeded yet can go straight into the compost bin, where they can be recycled into material that’s actually beneficial to your yard.

• Compost pile: Although you may already be composting, it’s wise to give some thought as to where the pile should be located. Find a spot that’s shaded from the sun. If you have an idea of where you might expand your planting area next season, put your pile there so that it can nourish the soil in the meantime.

• Frost: In early May, plants are unfortunately still vulnerable to frost. At this time, choose varieties hearty enough to withstand lower temperatures. Examples include snapdragons, sweet alyssum, pansy, or fragrant flowering stock.

• Mothers’ Day: May 10^th is Mothers’ Day this year! Reward your mom for everything she’s done for you by gifting her with a vibrant hanging basket. Again, frost is still a danger but annuals like fuchsia and bacopa can take the cold, lasting long enough for your mom to get as much enjoyment out of them as possible.

• Entryway containers: Since the weather will still get cool now and again, and you won’t be outside all of the time, fill outdoor containers near entryways with flowers and herbs. Hues that complement the façade of your home are ideal.

• Herbs: The spring is a great season for food. Mix up your mealtime routine with fresh herbs from your garden. Pots of herbs are not only attractive, their leaves add natural flavor to warm-weather dishes. If you love herbs native to dry climates, recreate their Mediterranean habitats by placing them in porous containers like unglazed terra-cotta pots. Herbs that benefit from this treatment include rosemary, thyme, and lavender.

• Transplanting: Modest transplanting projects can take place right now but the heat requires extra care. Young plants are especially vulnerable when moved in the heat. To protect them, use outdoor furniture as shelter after they’ve been moved so that they can slowly get used to their new home. Major transplant project should wait until fall, when the temperature has dropped.

• Prune shrubs: By the end of the month, many spring shrubs will have stopped flowering. Maintain their health for the rest of the season by doing some pruning. Older branches can be cut to the ground. Longer branches should be trimmed back. Finally, remove broken branches, as well as branches growing diagonally. Remember: blooms before May- prune after blooms but before July 1st; blooms after May- prune before April 20th.

• Dividing perennials: Even though it’s still spring, flowers that bloom later in the year could use some attention right now. Before your plants get to be six inches tall, divide summer- and fall-flowering perennials. Doing so will encourage more blossoms in the future, even if they’ve lain dormant in the past.