SPRING:

In early March our team gets to work cleaning up our gardens, pruning shrubs and trees and pulling cool season annual weeds like the prolific “hairy bittercress” and hardy perennial weeds like dandelions. Many shrubs and perennials benefit from early applications of organic fertilizers and many perennials can also be divided and transplanted in the spring when the ground is cool and moist.

In April we plant pansies and other cold tolerant annuals for immediate gratification and early spring color. These cold-tolerant annuals will flower nonstop all spring but usually fry once the heat arrives in June. In May and June we will remove these pansies once their life cycle is complete and we will replace them with heat-tolerant summer annual and tropical plants. Pansies benefit from light fertilizing as well as frequent deadheading which will keep them looking their best.

Finally, spring is a great time to patch bare spots in the lawn with grass seed which will germinate quickly in the cool weather once the soil has warmed. We also perform deep spade edging at this time. A deep edge on in-ground beds is both visually appealing as well as being functional in preventing turf grass from creeping into established beds and crowding out perennials and annuals. Soil can be amended in spring as well, adding organic matter back to the soil as needed in the form of various types of compost.