Following is a helpful list of garden
tasks from garden member Claire Merlino: Since everyone can’t attend every
garden meeting and work day, it’s good to keep in mind the kinds of plant
grooming and other garden maintenance tasks that can (and need) to happen
regularly, whenever anyone has time. During garden sitting hours is great.
Trash.
Of course, generally first, is cleaning up any trash that’s blown into the
garden or around the sidewalk keeping in mind that we’re working towards being
a “garbage in – garbage out” garden. If it’s not a tremendous amount of trash,
kindly take it home and place it in your garbage for pick-up. If it’s a lot of
stuff, kindly black bag it (there are large black bags in the shed) and place
it at the corner for the Parks Department to pick up. Hopefully this season
they’ll pick up regularly (Sundays maybe) like last year.
Blossom
Deadheading. This time of year there’s lots of
faded bulb blossoms that need to be removed, partly for the good of the plant
so they don’t set seed and deplete next year’s bulb stores and partly because
they look crummy. You can either nip off the faded bloom with your fingers,
scissors of pruning shears or cut the whole stem down as close to the bottom as
you have time or attention for. If you don’t know which are the bulb blossoms
(now tulips and daffodils) kindly come to a workday and learn more, you’re not
alone. Whoever works on deadheading, kindly be mindful of emerging plants and
be very careful where you step. If your target plant is too far out of reach,
just leave it rather than inadvertently trampling some innocent plantlets.
Grass
Trimming & Weeding. The lawn grass (as
differentiated from the ornamental grasses) is really zooming along with the
increasingly warm weather. (Thank you Robie for your excellent early spring
attention to the lawn!) Something that really needs attention mid-spring is the
edges of the grass, particularly adjacent to the boxes that the mower can’t
reach readily. While you may want to keep some violets or other spring
ephemerals while they’re blooming next to your plot, kindly trim the grass. The
grass along the borders is a different story since there are some plants that
we keep close to the grass as well as weeds that we try to keep to a minimum.
Mostly it’s the “ground-ivy”/“gill-over-the-ground” that’s a real problem when
it gets in the lawn. We’ll continue to remove plaintain from all lawn areas.
For those who aren't familiar it's the broad-leaved, close to the ground plant
that's in a lot of places. While, like many plants that some consider weeds, it
has medicinal properties, that benefit is outweighed when the lawn grass is
really affected. Of course if folks want to use the plaintain, just come by and
help yourselves. While we keep some non-grass plants in the lawn, we remove the
assertive ones. If the plants adjacent to the borders are unknown to you, join
us for our hands-on tutorial work sessions.
Grape
Vine Trimming. We’ve got quite a bit of dead wood on
the grape vines that’s now showing as the leaves are emerging so we need to
prune off the deadwood being careful to stay away from live wood. Again, if
that’s unfamiliar, come to a work session.
Some plants can be left along the pathway, such as violets, sedum and columbine, as seen in this photo. |
Walkway
Weeding. The cool season weeds are very happy right now as those
gardeners who’ve valiantly been pulling weeds know so well! The garden always
needs help with path weeding. Here and there are some plants that we leave,
like violets, columbine, sedums, etc. So if you’re new to the those occasional
plants, just check in. There’re plenty of path sections that are just plain
weedy.
This photo of a tiny watering can is the only one I had to demonstrate watering. I suggest you use a larger watering can. |
Watering.
Considering that we’ve just had a very dry April this is a reminder to give all
the plants a good watering. Especially, give attention to raised bed veggies
that you take care of and the borders. If you’re not sure if someone else has
watered before you, just see if the soil is moist about 1 to 2 inches deep. If
not, get out the watering cans or hose and play.
There’s always more, see you in the
garden!