By Matthew Roberts of Ginkgo Gardens
Winter, winter…. go away. Photo by María Helena Carey
Late winter is terribly annoying to just about everyone and especially to gardeners. The days are getting noticeably longer, but the air is still chill. The winds are damp and capriciously knock over and crack terra cotta pots left out on the patio. They create mushy clogged piles of un-raked leaves in amongst bedraggled perennials and scatter them up in branches of cotoneaster, spirea, and scraggly grasses. It’s still too cold and wet to have much fun outdoors, but some key projects can be attempted along with an inspirational trip in an unsuspected direction: farther North.
When you get a few free hours while the sun is out and the air is still, pop outside and do three things (well, four, but we’ll get to that). Prune whatever trees and shrubs need it. Now is when they are dormant and leafless if they are deciduous. You can actually see the branching structure without the leaves blocking your view. Stand back and pretend you are an artist and hold your thumb up like you’re framing a view or measuring a perspective and really look at the shape and patterns inherent in your shrub. Remove any branches that cross over each other. Remove any suckers (those random branchlets that shoot up from the base of the tree). And then remove whatever doesn’t look right. Oh, and try not to cut through anything bigger around than your thumb:especially your thumb.
Next, cut back any ornamental grasses that you left over winter (to provide habitat and food and an odd faded beauty) in the garden. This is also the time one would transplant any grasses that don’t work in their present spot or have outgrown their location. Although that action would be part of steps three and four; which are measuring, diagramming, and taking stock along with the ultimate winter gardening pastime – planning.
Grab some grid paper – I am a huge fan of grid paper – and mark down what is where. You have just cleared and cleaned, and your garden is at its most bare at this point. Whatever bulbs are peeking up (and they should be peeking up by now) can be located, so you know where they are not like in the fall when you want to plant them and can’t remember! (Or at least I can’t.) Put them on your plan. Whatever trees, shrubs, beds, paths, etc. are in your garden – put them on your plan. Now you have a map to consult as you head North for inspiration as to what to add, subtract, shift, and groom within your space in pursuit of beauty (or food, or whatever makes you happiest).
Now turn your back to the sun and head up I-95 to the City of Brotherly Love for the annual Philadelphia Flower Show. This is a crazy, beautiful, jam-packed extravaganza of all things floral. We’re talkin’ an entire convention center of gardening displays grand and petite, vendors of boots, bulbs, and briars, cooking classes, learning centers, prize-winning patheopedilums, and much, much more. You can get there by train, bus, or car (or even by plane, I suppose). Check with local gardening clubs and groups whooften charter a bus for a day trip to the show. Check with Amtrak for a Flower Show Special. Grab a neighbor or church member and carpool. Just go!
This year’s theme country is Great Britain – the grand dame of all gardening in the Western world– so it should be more spectacular than ever. The huge exhibits feature flowering trees forced into bloom out of season, roses and blossoming shrubs teased into revealing themselves now in the midst of winter, and thousands upon thousands of tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and herbs of every variety. What I find particularly interesting (and most profitable to the Hill gardener) are the smaller scale displays that feature hanging baskets, window boxes, and urban front yards. Four identical faux-townhouse façades are each landscaped in a diverse style to produce dramatic vignettes of what’s possible in a basic front yard. Who’d a thunk it? Well, now you can!
So take your plan of what you’ve got and make your notes of what they’ve got. Then come back home and use it all to figure out what you want. Then all you have to do is make it happen…..and that’s what Spring is for.
(Please note that the author is not a paid tout of the Philadelphia Flower Show or any of its wholly owned subsidiaries. He’s just excited about a road trip up north this week.)
Have gardening questions or planting needs? Matthew Roberts at Ginkgo Gardens can help you get started or keep your established garden flourishing with his knowledge and expertise.