Mid-February and the garden is waking up … or is it?
It is so tempting, isn’t it? That first whiff of spring soil smell, maybe a robin chortling in the distance? The urge is irresistible.
But before you give into the desire to start Martha Stewart-ing the back yard, just hold on there! Fickle Mother Nature will be up to her trickery. Seventy-one and sunny one day, 12 that night, with forecasted 6 inches of snow. You know the drill.
You can go out, but tread lightly. And that means literally. Even though it has been relatively low precipitation year, so far, you can damage your turf by walking the same path when the soil is saturated, squishing every bit of air out of the heavy clay turf. And it can take a whole season to undo what walking that path has done.
If the ground gets overly compressed, you will notice more weeds there from the compaction, and the turf just won’t pop like the rest of the grass does when spring does come. If you have a dog, even a little one, you have probably experienced this phenomenon before — after each winter, you could identify their running path and their favorite bathroom locations.
The best you can do to remedy this, if it does happen, in mid-spring when the soil dries some, is to core aerate that area and then lightly top-dress with half peat moss and half mushroom compost pre-mixed together and then applying one-half inch of this mixture over the damaged area.
This mixture is a great addition to any bed, whether vegetable, perennial or anything else that needs a boost in the spring.
The peat moss helps to acidify our soils (which are way too sweet, due to the limestone in our area) and the mushroom compost is a good organic amendment — slow release and low fertilizer numbers. It won’t green up your yard overnight like the chemical fertilizers do, but it also won’t burn or damage; nor will it create aphid-loving, overly succulent weak too-fast growth.
And before you start waxing on that you don’t want any mushrooms growing in your lawn or garden, you won’t. I tell people this all the time, but it bears repeating — if you use cow manure as a fertilizer, does a Holstein spring up in your vegetable patch? Or if you are lucky enough to have access to well-rotted horse manure, do you sprinkle it out there and the next morning, a stallion is galloping in the petunias?
No. The same is true for mushroom compost. No mushrooms. Mushroom compost is the substrate on which mushrooms are grown. Not mushroom “seeds” (spores).
Another mid-February activity is starting to remove the heavy clumps of leaves that have gathered around the corners of the garden. Note I did not say remove all the leaves, just the heavy-matted ones. These are typically oaks or magnolias, which have heavier structure and don’t break down as readily as the thinner leaves like maple, ash, and honey locust. These thicker leaves can actually mat together and cause an impenetrable rug where no moisture can get below, nor can any evaporate up and you can end with dead perennials below.
Now is the time to clear those heavy leaves, but keep them nearby in case a sub-zero night is forecast even late into May.
Another mid-February garden task surprises many gardeners when I tell them now is an ideal time for dormant tree, shrub and rose planting. You can plant anything perennial, almost, as long as you have a hole dug in the ground.
The beauty of dormant planting is the root system has an opportunity to get established and start growing without the stress of having to support the new leaves in spring. There are some key features for planting that are hard and fast rules, not to be skipped.
First, dig the hole only as deep as the woody plant is planted in its bag, burlap, pot, etc. If it is 8 inches, dig no deeper than 8 inches deep. Now wide, is a different story, you can make the hole twice as wide if you want.
The reasoning for the depth staying the same is plants have what I call a “sweet spot,” where when the seed germinated it split into the root and shoot. That is a crucial spot for the plant its entire life. If you plant a tree, say, even two inches too deep, that tree will struggle its whole life.
If you drive down most streets and look at the parkway, you will see no flare at the base of the trees. They go into the ground like phone poles — planted too deeply. That flare is essential. The other rule for planting is to leave what is there, and don’t add any fancy amendments.
There used to be an old saying of “put a five-dollar tree in a fifty-dollar hole.” Which meant to dig out all the poor-quality soil when digging the hole and replace it with high quality amendments. But science found that was the exact wrong thing to do.
By replacing the poor existing soil with fluffy, light high-quality amendments, the new roots of the plant shoot straight through the fancy soils, and don’t build up any core strength. They are weak and not durable. So, when they finally hit the edges of that hole, the roots start circling as though they are in a pot in the ground.
As the roots circle there is a limit to their exposure to water and nutrients, further stressing the now older tree.
Another task for now is for those of you who have birds nesting every year in an inconvenient spot – such as over the door, in a wreath, over the picnic table.
Be proactive and purchase some nylon or metal bird deterrent spikes. Just affix them where you don’t want birds to nest. They won’t harm the birds; just encourage them to nest elsewhere.