Five (5) Things to Do for Your Landscape Beds in Spring

1. Spring Clean up

Depending on the cleanup you were able to do in the fall, spring cleanup can be a daunting task for those that weren’t able to remove the leaves and debris. Keeping your landscape bed clean of debris is vital to keeping harmful mold, rot, and pathogens out of the garden. Removing the leaves from the landscape bed as well as any dead that was not cut back in the fall will help get your garden off to a fresh start for a healthy season.

2. Maintain Edges

Maintaining the edges to your landscape beds are a vital part to not only the look of your landscape bed, but also the health. Keeping a nice clean edge on a landscape bed can help retain and mulch, compost, dirt, or stone within the bed giving it a professional look. As the snow in our area melts, and the spring rain comes through, keeping the edge updated will help prevent any washout from the rushing water. Having an edge on your landscape bed not only keeps the material in the bed, but also the grass out. Keeping the creeping turf out of the landscape bed will help prevent grasses and weeds within the bed which can take up vital nutrients needed from your garden.

3. Shrub Pruning

Spring pruning and trimming can be an essential part of a plants long term health. Being in the weather climate that we are in, one of the first things you should do during your spring walk around is to check for any damage from the winter. Any branches which have suffered damage from twisting, breaking, or bent should be pruned now. A clean cut is easier for the plant to heal compared to a tear as the shrubs raise from dormancy. As you begin to make your first round of pruning you must first ensure that there are no further signs of frost as this can cause damage to the shrubs. Along with your normal plant pruning, be sure to trim your roses at this time as well. You can prune 1/4-/1/3 of the rose bush as well as any dead canes to give them a lift for the year.

4. Perennial Clean Up

While most of your perennial clean up should ideally be done in the spring time, some people like to leave some shrubs up for foliage during the winter. If your clean-up wasn’t done in the spring now is a good time to get to it. You want to start this process early and remove all of the dead from the shrub giving room for the new growth to sprout. Hosta, grasses, daylilies, and cone flowers and all are cut back heavily nearly 90% to allow for the new green to come in. Don’t wait too long to do this though because the growth will start at the first sight of spring!

5. Dividing Perennials

Take a look around your garden. Do you see any encroachment on shrubs into others? If you notice some crowding of your shrubs now, before they have received their summer growth, they will only become an issue. Spring is a great time to assess your garden and decide which shrubs should be divided. Not all shrubs can be divided, but some of the more common species include daylilies, irises, hosts, grasses, cone flowers, and yuccas.