Ask the weatherman for help with spring clean up
By Thea Steinmetz
Insights
Published May 2, 2007

There are two realities that every gardener hopes for when it’s time for spring housecleaning in the garden. One is decent weather and the other is stamina. Yes, I call it “housecleaning,” and it is on a bigger scale than what we do for the inside of our home.

This annual clean up starts much as we do to get ready for our inside clean up. We gather the tools we must have, and others that we might need to do the job properly. The tools better be clean and handy. It might even involve buying a new rake. The pruners, in selected sizes, should be sharp and ready to go. Your digging tools change with the task at hand. Soil preparation is always a must before planting can begin. If you are using a rototiller, it better be in working condition.

If you have a shed as we do, it needs to be cleaned out as well. There are things in there I know I never put there. There must have been animal squatters in residence  having a good old time, because they left their smelly and messy legacy behind. How can one flowerpot have accumulated so many acorns  in the past few months?

There better be some grass seed around because the lawn also needs some loving care. Especially at curbside, where the snowplows always seem to do their best work.

I remember vividly when last year I told myself, why indeed should I pay someone to do the spring clean up when I was perfectly capable of doing it myself? You can guess what happened. By August, I admitted that I could not do it to my own satisfaction. I was still behind. So this year it was done professionally and I am ahead of the game.

It is also the time to start planting trees and shrubs, now that the soil is workable. This is a job that is best done before higher temperatures move in. The spring rain will help getting the new woody plants established and cut down on the heavy watering we must otherwise do.

Prune spring flowering shrubs, such as forsythia, right after blooming so they can develop good new growth over the summer. They will bloom better next year.

The best part is that I do not feel abused by all the work staring me in the face. A bonus was that the waterfall and tiny pond were also cleaned and worked on, and now the water flows better than when it was first installed. Now, there is a sound that is very pleasing to the ear, instead of the little trickle it used to produce. The birds are frequent partakers of the water, and it is a joy to see how happy they are. They flutter their wings in the water as it rolls over the stones. Happy as a lark, the bluebirds, cardinals and all manner of other visitors appreciate this bird recreation area.

Here comes the less pleasant reality of spring. What did we lose with the late winter’s fury? The dieback ranges from almost nothing to great damage for some. The roses seem to have suffered the most. The way it looks, I lost four rose bushes, but have not given up hope for them to recover later on. Others are in need of deep pruning and will be all right.

A strange thing happened with the lilacs. One formerly strong shrub, Miss Kim, is completely dead, while several others seem to be all right and are vigorously growing.

The large viburnum shrubs are as lusty as I have ever seen them. I was concerned for them, as they had their buds fairly well developed when the cold weather hit. By now they are ready to bust into full bloom as if the horrible weather never touched them.

I wanted to get a sense of how some of our area’s better gardeners fared and how great a loss they experienced. Dave Walter was hit hard with the frost as well as with deer making themselves at home to feast on the greenery in his garden. “It is discouraging this year,” he said. “We may not even have any peaches.” He also thinks that his azaleas are “iffy.” His tulips are chewed down to the ground and he wonders if, Westlake will ever do anything about the deer population.

Unfortunately, the flowering shrubs he planted last year are all dead. He is especially distraught over his white French double lilac that looks pitiful now. Even his crabapple trees seem to be in jeopardy.

Another local gardener, especially fond of her magnolias bemoaned the fact that all the blossoms turned brown and her red maple has suffered also.

Looking at the garden of Ruth and Tom Stafford in Rocky River, there seems to be little damage. The massive pink tulip bed out in front shows a few tired flowers, but the pansies are so satisfying. The extensive garden all around the house looks as perfect as it can be. The close proximity to Lake Erie might have something to do with it.

There is so much to do in the garden now that one does not know sometimes where to start. At the moment it is raining, so we can put off all the plans we had made for this day and instead dream about what is yet to come.