Beginner Gardening Tips Blog

Despite the rather chilly temperatures this past long weekend, I still managed to get out in the garden and cross a few tasks off my list. It’s not very often I have two straight days in a row to get things done. So with a new pink pair of gardening gloves that I got for my birthday, I set out with my basket of tools to weed, plant, prune and dig.

This is what left me with a sense of accomplishment:

1. We planted two five to six-foot cedars: I bought these about a month ago and have been waiting for a chance to dig them in. Fingers crossed that they make it. They still look lovely and green.
2. I dug out a ton of dandelions and other annoying weeds that magically appeared after all that rain we got these last couple of weeks. Talk about eco-friendly pest control, it was also a workout!
3. Give my boyfriend a pair of loppers or pruning shears and I come back to a twig with a root, so I kindly pointed out what I wanted pruned and how. Lorraine Flanigan’s article on how to prune spring-flowering shrubs, was helpful for my forsythias.
4. I spread around some compost in a couple of my beds to prepare them for the lovely plants I have in store for them.
5. I’m not sure if it was the fungus gnats or the fact that they’d outgrown the little peat pellets, but all of a sudden, my seedlings were looking sad and limp—and they didn’t need water. So I transplanted my seedlings into bigger pots until I’ll be able to plant them right into the garden.
6. I have always felt bad about tossing away those wooden mandarin orange containers, so this winter I kept them because I knew they’d come in handy for something. And in one of them I planted salad greens. Yesterday the squirrels made a couple of holes in it, but if things start to grow, I’ll take a picture.
7. I had some herb plants I was trying to protect from frost, but I just couldn’t wait any longer, so I planted them.
8. I dug out a ton of lily of the valley and their network of roots—they are so pretty and smell so nice, but they’re a pain in the butt every spring when they’re in the middle of my garden and I’m wanting to plant things. So I had to be ruthless.

And that sums up my list. A few tasks down, a few hundred to go!

Tags: cedars, compost, dandelions, forsythia, gardening gloves, lily of the valley, pruning, spring-flowering trees