observing, pruning, cleaning & planning!
springing forward ~ what to do now~ and what to do later!
I don’t know about you, but Daylight Saving Time and the extra evening light delivered just the jolt I needed to emerge from my winter hibernation. It’s darker in the morning, but the birds are singing before daybreak, urging me to leave my snuggly bed. Much of the winter months have been spent seed starting and planning the Community Hospice House gardens. But spring is only days away, and suddenly there’s a lot going on! So I will attempt to be concise with 3 steps you can take now. But first, I will call out some new information on this website that may be helpful to you this spring. (As always, click on each image for a larger view and/or hover for a description. Clicking a link will open a new window in your browser so you can easily find you way back to this page.)
growing Opium Poppies from seed ~ there’s still time to get your seeds here and direct sow into your gardens for blooms this summer. I will also have my own seedlings for sale by late May (stay tuned!)
designing with flower shape ~ I share photos from my own and client gardens illustrating how to mix different shapes for maximum Wonder!
reference websites ~ a list of the most reliable online information for preserving and rebuilding habitat for pollinators and all native wildlife.
I recently learned about Japan’s ‘72 Seasons’. I love this idea of observing and honoring the weekly changes in the garden and landscape. It helps us deepen our connection with the Natural World and heighten our awareness of the unfolding life all around. I probably won’t have success documenting 72 seasons here in Nashua, but perhaps I will be able to capture notes on a bi-weekly basis.
As we approach the vernal equinox, I’ll just call the second half of March ‘Birdsong before sunrise & witch hazel signal the return of spring’. Read more about 72 Seasons here.
Ok, back to business and our 3 step plan for the remainder of March!
step 1: observe & plan for 4 season interest
Our landscapes are getting ready to pop. The signs are everywhere! Just driving down the highway, you can see the deciduous tree branches turning yellow and a bit limey.
While it’s still too early to do too much tidying up of the garden beds (insects are still sleeping!), now is the perfect time to take stock of your gardens and assess their winter interest. Sure, we will soon be planning for spring flowers, but observing with a critical eye now will help you discover opportunities to kick up the drama with plants and trees that look ah-MAY-zing all year long and bridge the gap from winter into spring. Bonus points if your choices support local wildlife!
I’m not talking about evergreen blobs, but small conifers with colorful needles or early blooming shrubs, like my friend Carol’s witch hazel with its spidery amber blooms and the specimen I saw recently at the Kingston, NH library garden with peachy/pink blooms. These native hamamelis are blooming NOW and will continue to bloom for weeks, providing vital nectar and pollen to early emerging insects. I have serious plant envy, for sure, as my witch hazels have pretty much been decimated (again) by rabbits. Reminder to protect them next winter with chicken wire!
Across the property from Carol’s massive witch hazel is a thoroughly charming weeping Norway spruce that appears to be watching over and guarding the small blue and gold conifers and wheat toned Mexican Feather Grass that border the pool below. This vignette is an amazing example of what can be achieved for winter interest with a bit of forethought and planning. The tall spruce creates a pause in the action before our eyes take in the borrowed view on the other side of the fence. It creates a focal point in the landscape upon which all other smaller trees and shrubs in that section of the garden relate. Its weeping habit commands attention and lends such personality to her garden! And the colorful conifers - wow!!
A recent addition to The Big Little Garden is the petite coral bark maple ‘Sango-kaku’. This cultivar offers strong 4 season interest, displaying beautiful green foliage against red bark in summer, with foliage turning yellow in fall. The bark remains red all year and even though it is only about 36” tall, it is highly visible in the landscape this winter.
step 2: sharpen those pruners ~ but proceed with caution!
Over the next few weeks, you can prune deciduous shrubs like panicle and smooth hydrangea and red twig dogwood (aka cornus sericea and cornus stolonifera). Hydrangea paniculata, smooth/Annabelle hydrangea and many cornus varieties bloom on new wood (this year’s growth), so pruning now will not interfere with summer bloom. Red/yellow twig dogwood will respond beautifully to a HARD pruning NOW, achieving 30” or more of new growth in just a couple months. It’s this NEW growth that will produce the beautiful red and yellow twigs next winter. This also goes for ‘Hakura Nishiki’, tri-colored willow. They should be looking quite red in your landscape now, so pruning any time in the next couple weeks is fine. If you start to see small leaf buds erupting along the stems, it’s time to prune! You can remove all of last year’s growth and even prune more deeply if a smaller specimen is desired. Don’t be afraid to cut back deeply! And remember to always disinfect your pruners before moving from one shrub to another in order to prevent the transmission of any potential disease. An easy way to do this is to carry a container of bleach wipes
But be careful NOT to prune your hydrangea quercifolia! Oak leaf hydrangea bloom on ‘old wood’, so pruning now could significantly reduce the amount of blooms this summer. Then there’s the macrophylla hydrangea, sometimes called ‘big leaf hydrangea’. These are the traditional blue varieties. Some bloom only on new wood, while most bloom on old wood, yet some newer cultivars bloom on both new and old wood. It’s enough to make your head spin. Not sure which type of hydrangea you have? Send me a photo and I will try to help you identify it. Here’s a great resource for pruning all types of hydrangea!
The images below show the before and after pruning results of my panicle hydrangea ‘Pinky Winky’ last week. I removed all of last year’s growth, reducing the size about 50%. It looks quite dramatic, but in the last 10 years, severe March pruning has never failed to promote beautiful regrowth. If I chose not to prune this hydrangea, it would become severely overgrown in just one year. In looking at these photos, I may actually go out again and cut some of the main stems down even further. Before you discard or send the cuttings to the landfill, be aware that there is a possibility that a butterfly chrysalis is attached to a stem and is just waiting for warm weather to emerge. So, I gently laid the stems down in the adjacent garden bed that won’t be cleaned for another month or so. This simple step can help to ensure survival of more butterflies in my garden this year!
step 3: go easy on the cleanup!
The leaf litter and other debris in your garden beds is a treasure trove of habitat and winter cover for pollinators and beneficial insects. IF YOU RAKE AND CLEAN NOW, YOU ARE DESTROYING THIS HABITAT! While days are warming, our southern NH nights are still dipping below freezing and there is next to nothing blooming (except for Carol’s witch hazel!). So if we rip off their blanket now, they will have nothing to forage and eat and will most certainly not survive. Over the years, I’ve learned that many areas in my garden don’t require any raking or tidying up at all, like the ‘soft landing’ under our tall white pine. Every year, the prior year’s fern debris, leaves and pine needles decompose beneath the white pine, creating incredible habitat for insects and rich soil for plants. This ‘soft landing’ (more about that next time!) is a marvel to observe through the seasons as the daffodils emerge first and then native ferns find their way up to sunlight and completely engulf the fading daffodils. It’s a 100% care free area of the garden (other than removing any heavy fallen branches).
Raking and removal of garden debris is also certain death to our native fireflies which spend two years in the leaf litter maturing from egg to larvae to adult. Read more about their plight here!
While we wait for temps to consistently rise above mid 50’s and wait for our early native ephemerals to bloom, please refrain from garden cleanup. However, there are a few things we can do in addition to pruning:
cut back last year’s hellebore foliage ~ This is safe to do because non-native hellebores aren’t typically a source of overwintering habitat for bees and other insects.
rake lawns of twigs, branches and pine cones ~ This helps to stimulate lawns and gives us something useful to do while we’re patiently waiting to tackle the garden beds.
clean birdbaths & feeders ~ prevent the spread of diseases like salmonella and conjunctivitis with regular cleaning and disinfecting of all baths and feeders. Here’s a great article on this subject!
clean out bird houses ~ Wrens, chickadees and bluebirds will soon be scouting nesting sites. So if you haven’t already, remove last year’s nesting material and brush out any debris, spider webs, etc. from the interior. My buddy Gene at Nashua Farmers’ Exchange advises against using any type of bleach or other chemical to disinfect the inside of the bird houses (the time for that would have been last fall).
Three of our five bird houses contained wren and chickadee nests. Look how different they are! The chickadees gather soft moss and plant fibers whereas the wrens assemble nests with twigs and other woody material. I’m excited to see them rebuilding nests this spring!
native plant focus ~ amsonia
As you re-engage with your garden this month, I encourage you to look for opportunities to replace an existing non-native (especially the invasives like burning bush!) plant with a native plant. For a refresher on why this matters click here.
One of my all time favorite perennials is amsonia, aka ‘bluestar’. This amazing north American native provides structure, texture, color and 4 season interest. In late May to mid-June, the ice blue flowers attract many types of native bees and butterflies. Its threadleaf foliage hosts hemaris diffinis, the snowberry clearwing moth. You may know it as the ‘hummingbird moth’ or ‘bumblebee moth’. Support the reproduction of this amazing creature, right in your own garden!!
While an herbaceous perennial, amsonia achieves substantial heft and height and in some areas of the garden can be a great replacement for a non-native shrub. Its feathery foliage pairs well with purple leaf plants like penstemon and is the perfect companion for tall bee balm, hiding the latter’s bare knees in mid-summer.
I will be sourcing locally grown, pesticide-free amsonia from my New Hampshire wholesale growers in a few weeks. So let me know if you are in need of any as it can be difficult to source at local garden centers. We are using amsonia as a matrix plant to weave through Community Hospice House gardens, to carry the eye through the planting beds and to unify the design. I typically plant one gallon amsonia on 18” center and stagger them a bit so they aren’t lined up like soldiers. This will accommodate their eventual growth and expansion without becoming too tight and crowded. This photo of my amsonia in October (above/right) shows two specimens that I planted as one gallon youngsters in 2016. They are now enormous and so happy above the boulder wall!
Next issue, I will share more information on ‘soft landings’ , native shrubs for beauty and wildlife support, and my not-so-secret feelings and advice about lawns. Stay tuned for tips on how to begin thinking about shrinking and replacing your lawn with native habitat!
So, that is my version of ‘concise’! I hope you found the information useful. Happy almost spring!
~ Barb