April Showers Bring May Flowers

This week in South Western Ontario has been quite rainy but our gardens need the watering to bring us beautiful flowers come May. After the rainy period, it’s a great time to get into the garden and continue the clean up. The moisture in the soil makes it easier to remove unwanted items in the garden. Here are some weekly stylicious tips that you can do to continue preparing your garden for an enjoyable summer:

1) Many of us treated ourselves to an Easter Lily this past weekend. Be sure to enjoy it inside until the last frost date in your area and then transplant it outdoors to enjoy next year.

2) Remove any maple saplings, grass, and weeds from within you perennials before their root structure has time to develop. This allows the perennials more breathing room and as well, makes it much easier to remove the growth before your garden is in full bloom.

3) Fruit trees and bushes (e.g. raspberries) only grow fruit on second year growth and will not produce fruit on branches that produced fruit last year, so prune back any non-fruit bearing branches.

4) Turn over your compost – take good soil from your compost and top up the gardens after you have weeded them well. Bury remaining soil with new garden clippings and start adding food scraps on top. Be sure to continue to turn over your compost throughout the spring/summer. Layering your deposits (small branches/food scraps/soil) will help produce a healthy, nutritious compost.

5) Fertilize your lawn – Since grass is coming out of dormancy, it’s time to feed your grass. We recommend fertilizing with a corn gluten fertilizer at this time of the year since it will coat any seeds from weeds and prevent them from germinating. However, do not seed your grass for several weeks after application since the corn gluten will coat those seeds as well and prevent them from germinating.

Happy Gardening!