Hurry Up Spring!

As we welcome back “Spring” in Montana, those of us who love plants and love to garden are anxious to get out in the yard. At this moment in our current national crisis we want to let you know that we are open as weather permits and that we are working to figure out the best way to serve our customers with all efforts to protect customers and staff. Please bear with us as we figure out the best flow and social distancing in our effort to keep everyone healthy. We are happy to help folks over the phone and pick out your order for curbside pickup. Just give us a call. Please check our website and Facebook for updates.

My mom recently told me a story from her childhood about her first gardening experience. She was 4 or 5 years old and folks were planting Victory Gardens. My grandmother gave my mom a few beans, a banana peel and a penny to plant. She remembers that the beans did come up. Seems like I come by my plant geek honestly.

So even as it is snowing as I write, we see signs of spring. The cottonwoods are starting to bud out, the robins are here, and the flowering plums will be blooming after the cold snap. I started an idea list for my ramblings this season because I need to write things down these days.

Last week’s snow aside, here in Billings it has been a pretty dry, open winter. It is time to be getting out the hose to soak your plants, especially evergreens, before your irrigation system is turned on. We know that well-watered evergreens have the best chance to withstand the cold and wind and the same is true for your other trees and shrubs. It is last call for spring pruning of trees and shrubs. Pruning helps maintain plant health and lets you control the size and shape of the plant and allow the plant to have good light and air circulation that promotes good plant health. Remember that lilac, forsythia, bridal wreath spirea, mock orange and weigela should be pruned after they flower. These plants bloom on second year wood so if you prune now you will cut off most of your flowers. Pruning is art and science but keep in mind the basic pruning guidelines. Keep your tools clean and sharp and always clean up your clippings. You can prune out dead, dying, diseased or damaged wood any time you see it. (Do not try to compost diseased plant material like clippings from fire blight.) Before buds break remove any crossing or rubbing branches, water suckers and branches that are growing toward the center of the tree or shrub. Always look for an outward facing bud and make your cut on an angle just above that bud. Removing those inward growing branches helps open the center of the plant to sunlight and better air circulation to promote overall plant health. I have mentioned the concept of rejuvenation/thinning before. This idea suggests cutting older branches down to the ground to give the newer wood more energy. Red twig dogwood is one of the easiest shrubs to demonstrate this concept as it is easy to tell the newer growth by its bright red color and easy to see the older brown branches that should be cut out. Your dogwoods will look happier if you cut out the old dead and not just round the tops with the clipper. It is also a good idea to prune no more than one third of a bush at a time. Serious plant renovations could take more than one season to finish. I could spend more time talking about pruning evergreens but the Morton Arboretum has a very informative page: Pruning Evergreens

Remember that early October cold snap? The yoyo temperature changes left people and plants not quite ready for dormancy. We saw several plant varieties that did not have a chance to prepare for color change and hardening off. It is too early yet to fully determine if plants were damaged so keep that on your spring scouting list. What is scouting you may ask? Scouting is the regular checking of your plants and yard for conditions that can cause problems for your plants. That includes correct watering and looking for insects, weeds and disease. Fun fact, weeds can be a vector for insects and disease as well as steal water from your desired plantings.

Now is the time to cut back your ornamental grass, clean up perennials and left-over winter leaves, as well as add granular fertilizer as needed to your yard. This is also time to de-thatch or power rake the lawn. It is also a good time to add compost to the lawn and garden beds. If you plan to roto-till your garden patch be sure the soil is not too wet. You can end up with a clumpy mess if the soil is too wet. Many gardeners choose not to till because it stirs up weed seeds that sprout because the soil is turned, and the seeds are exposed. Many vegetable gardeners use the no-till method, just dig each hole as big as you need to plant your tomatoes and mulch around them to keep the weeds down. Straw, newspapers, cardboard and wood mulch are great options to keep the weeds down. As I usually say, ask 3 gardeners and get 5 different opinions.

As we look to our coming season, we will have a selection of veggies to plant. Keep in mind that the 3rd week in May is the usual last frost time in our area. Vegetable plants need warm soil to start growing so even if we don’t get frost the plants won’t be happy until the soil gets warm. Since our growing season is short here many of us who have been looking at seed catalogs since January want to try to get ahead of Mother Nature. If you know the microclimate in your yard you could have some success. If your planting location is on a south facing fence or wall getting unobstructed sun, the soil will be warmer sooner than a north or east facing location. You can also try every wives tale you ever heard from your grandmother, plant early and cover small plants with milk jugs or Wall-O-Waters, be prepared to run out every night cover plants as needed and then uncover in the morning, or just wait until the weather is right to plant. That was pretty long winded for check with us in a few weeks for veggies.

We do have on hand fruit plants that can be planted now. Fruit trees, raspberries, elderberries, chokecherries, currents, chokeberries, gooseberries, grapes, bush cherries and serviceberries to name the ones I can remember. Early spring planting gives your plant time for more root growth before we get to the heat of summer. Trees, shrubs and perennials are arriving weekly. It warms my geeky heart to see the new growth peeking up on the perennials that are warming up.

If you are getting cabin fever, consider heading our direction in the coming weeks to enjoy the changing of the seasons. Even if we can’t hug or shake hands, we will do our best to safely help with your gardening plans for this year. This could be the year to rediscover the fun to be had outside of the house.