Prep your spring garden

Spring is one of the busiest times in a home gardener’s year! Not only are plants waking up after their long winter snooze, there’s also a need for post-winter clean-up and mulch removal before you can replant for the summer harvest. We’ve put together a handy checklist of basics for spring gardens. (If you want some early gratification, you can plant some cool-season flowers and vegetables like snowdrops, Chinese witchhazel, spinach and radishes before the frost season officially ends.) Today, challenge yourself to adapt our spring garden checklist to your own garden’s needs:

• Remove and compost dead annuals

• Prune perennials down to ground level as needed

• Cut back shrubby and woody perennials to foster new branch blooms

• Cut ornamental grasses back to within a few inches of the ground

• Research rose care appropriate for your climate

• Tidy trees, shrubs, and evergreens

• Weed while soil is damp and soft, starting a new compost pile