Spring sensations

Planning, prepping & planting for the growing season ahead

Spring is one of my favourite seasons. It’s a fresh start for all the gardening possibilities you can imagine and anticipate for the growing year ahead. It’s when you can put into practice the lessons learned and successful techniques you’ve cultivated along the way.

There’s something so satisfying about “spring cleaning” in the garden. I look forward to tackling the spent perennials, collecting fallen branches, and doing a good tidy-up.

I’ve adopted the practice of doing as little clean up in the fall as possible. Sure, I gather up fallen leaves but they remain as mulch on the garden beds. I allow late-blooming perennials to stay put and go to seed for the benefit of the birds who snack on them and the beneficial bugs who use their hollow stems to over-winter in a safe place. This creates more work in spring but I find that I have that renewed enthusiasm and energy that was beginning to fade at the end of last season, so it’s not so bad. I take this time to assess the entire yard, look for areas that need repair, tend to dull tools, clean pots for reuse, stock up on soils, and really set myself up for success.

Once the garden/yard has been cleaned up, it’s ready for new plantings of annuals, veggies, perennials and such...depending on the weather, of course.

es or string.

For a shady balcony, leafy green veggies such as chard, kale, lettuce, spinach and green onions would do well. For bursts of colour, lean towards Coleus for amazing foliage or Impatiens for endless summer blooms.

Be careful with watering in a shady spot though – to prevent yellowing and rot you must wait until the soil is dry before drenching, let the water run freely through, and wait until the soil is dry again before the next watering.

Spring is one of my favourite seasons. It’s a fresh start for all the gardening possibilities you can imagine and anticipate for the growing year ahead. ”

It’s important to avoid getting too eager and putting out heat-loving plants too soon.

If your garden space is a balcony or patio, you’re limited on room but that doesn’t mean that you can’t have an abundance of blooms or harvests of fruits and veggies.

Create a “garden space” by utilizing various pot sizes and shapes, combination planting and growing vertically with trellis-

If your spot receives four to five hours of morning sunshine with dappled shade in the afternoon you’d do well with veggies like peas, beans, root vegetables, broccoli and most herbs. The selection of flowering plants really opens up in this environment and would favour most summer-flowering annuals, so bring on the colour!

For full sun areas that receive six to eight hours of sunshine each day, peppers, tomatoes, blueberries, strawberries and cucumbers will thrive. Most blooming annuals can tolerate such conditions however you may find yourself watering constantly and fertilizing more often, just to keep them happy. In this case, I would opt for low-maintenance sun-loving plants such as succulents and cacti or even some sub-tropical beauties such as a Canna Lilies or Hibiscus.

Get out and grow with Country Grocer!