5 Early Spring To Do's in the Garden

Where I live in Zone 6a, about 65 miles north of New York City, there is a feeling of spring in the air, but just barely. It's enough to get us gardeners out doing some preparation for the season to come. It's an exciting time because everything is ahead of us.

I have my seedling trays growing nicely indoors and have ordered netting to put over the rows of flowers I'll be planting in my cutting garden. Those annual seedlings will have to wait until mid to late May to be transferred to their permanent home outdoors.

Here are 5 things we can do outdoors in our garden in the early spring when we're impatient to get started:

1. Gently rake out garden beds now. If you wait to rake later you have to be much more careful or you may damage plants emerging from the soil. It's not just your rake that can do damage, but your feet can be stepping on new shoots. For some extra mulch, rake the leaves on your lawn and mow over them to create leaf mulch. Sprinkle lightly on your garden beds around emerging plants. The smaller bits of leaves will not smother your plants the way full size leaves can do especially when they get wet.


2. Cut back dead leaves on hellebores and other perennials that don't die back completely in the winter. This looks better and also lets the new growth feel the sun and photosynthesize.


3. Other perennials such as Joe pye weed and ornamental grasses which I left standing in my garden all winter, can now be cut back to allow new growth to come forward. In my mother's generation it was good form to cut back all of the perennials to the ground in the fall so it looked neat throughout the winter. Now the gardening wisdom is to leave at least some plants for winter interest and also for birds and insects to find shelter and food. Click here to read an article by Ruth Clausen about which plants to leave for winter and which ones to cut back.


4. Start applying deer repellent to vulnerable plants emerging from the soil. If you do this every couple of weeks as the plants are young you may discourage deer from browsing that area for the rest of the season.


5. Cut out dead and crossing branches on shrubs, even spring blooming shrubs. If the shrub is still dormant and no buds are showing, you may not be able to tell what is dead. If that's the case, wait a week or two.

Tell us what's on your list of To Do's for early spring.