Preparing for Spring Plant Sales

So it’s February 5th and about 12 degrees outside here in Perry, Ohio. You would think that this would be a slow time of year in the growing business, but you’d be wrong!

Many of our successful growers are still buying and selling plants in anticipation of their first plant sales beginning in April!

What should you be doing right now?  Mike just got his order from Heritage seedlings of 1800 rooted cuttings!

Let’s see, what should we put on our pre-spring gardening checklist?

I need your help with this, comment below and let me know what I missed.

Get all of the remaining leaves out of my beds

Remove the tops from the perennials, Hosta, Daylilly etc.

Trim any trees that need trimming while they are still dormant.  Dormant pruning is the least stressful kind of pruning you can do

Take a good hard look at the landscape.  How many shrubs in the landscape have really and truly out grown their usefulness?  Make a list of the ones that deserve to be cut back to see how they look.  Make a list of the ones that really, really need to go.

Review Mike’s Instructions for Removing Stumps so come spring I’ll have the right tools.

Shrubs that deserve a second chance can be cut back really hard.  Take a chance.  You might be surprised 6 months from now.  Remind me to post some pictures.  I have two big, over grown shrubs to cut back.

Get Mike’s Backyard Growing System because . . . it will make you a much better gardener and will allow you to buy plants that nobody else can buy.  It will also allow you make some extra money doing something you love to do.

Promise yourself to do a little gardening each day.  It will keep the doctor away!

And here are some tasks offered by some of our friends:

Order mulch and pots/bags so I am ready to start potting up all those rooted cuttings when the weather breaks.

Order supplies so everything is on-hand before the weather breaks and the warehouses get swamped with calls for product.

Draw up a potential layout for new grow beds and areas so I will know where the bagged/potted stuff is going before I even start bagging. Have a plan and then work the plan.

If y’all love to look of tall grasses like I do, wait until the last of February to cut it back to the ground.

Put those coffee grounds out in the compose heap, also egg shells and any other thing from the kitchen that doesn’t have oil or meat in it.

Buy worms if you don’t already have a bed of them. They are like a dream come true to the soil.

If your Azaleas are getting too tall or misshaped, don’t think you can’t cut them to the ground because you can. It will take a couple of years for them to come back to a nice height but they will. I didn’t cut mine to the ground after they bloomed but I did cut them back to about a foot and they did great. Plus, don’t forget to fertile them about 3 times during the summer. Remember to never trim and Azalea any later than six weeks after they stop blooming. Oops, we are talking about now.

Dig lilies that have become crowded if y’all want to see more and more of them. They will thank you for it.

I also separate my hosta just as they leaf out. Most people don’t do this but I do and when I separate them, I have tons to give away. One year I separated just one plant and put them in a out of the way spot. The new spring, I bet I had 25 new plants. The second year and I needed to separate them again.

And the main thing in my way of looking at my garden is to try a new plant every year. I have been here 29 years and have planted something new just about every year. I like doing my planting in beds on the edge of the yard in a curving pattern so that it makes mowing easier. I detest mowing around a bed of plants.

Oh and don’t forget to spray the Japanese Maples before they start to leaf out. I lost two because I failed to. Beetles got to them.

If y’all don’t like using commercial fertilizer, just buy composted manure and put some in a 5 gallon bucket and add water to put around your plants.

Another thing to remember is do not plant tomatoes in the same place each year. Move them around to a different site. It keeps them from getting nematodes.

Oh also plant peas to enrich the soil with nitrogen. If a spot isn’t doing well for plants, that is a good thing to do to make the soil good again.

Take the lawn mower to the shop for a tune up/blade sharpen. A lot less backup now than in a couple months

Clean, oil and sharpen pruners, loppers, hedge trimmers, hoes, spades, etc.

Pick a section of the yard to completely re-landscape. Draw up a sketch of the section and choose which plants to use in that section and how to arrange them for maximum effect.

Winter sow some seeds in plastic milk cartons

Take some Hardwood cuttings

Stock up on more potting soil

What would YOU add to this list?