Spring Cleaning Gardens and Planting Seedlings - by Sunscape

The Strawberry Tower garden needed sprucing up since they were starting to flower. I pulled off all the dead leaves and a few dead crowns that did not survive the winter. I think I lost half the plants, and I hope I can find some slips at the nursery when I go today to replace them.

I cleaned out all the gardens surrounding the back porch, then planted some snapdragons, verbena, and lobelia. Once that was done, I put down a bag of mulch.

All the Hosta and Ferns had grown so quickly, and it looks nice and tidy now.

All the sides around the porch are done, I got tired and took a coffee break while Mika lay on the grass watching Sparrows search for bugs.

Interestingly, the birds come so close to her.

The large garden under the Kousa Dogwood had a lot of weeds, grass, and spring bulbs that needed a serious cleanup.

It took me a while to do this bed. Some of the bulbs had taken over many areas, so I carefully thinned them out as much as possible. Then I pulled out some of the Candytuft that had overgrown one whole area. I know it is pretty in the spring, but I like to cover the bare areas with Impatiens plants for color all summer long.

I didn't clean up the rock edges where grass has grown; that will have to be a whole other day.

Looking at the same garden from the opposite side, it looks so much better.

Now, it is ready for the annual plants. I did plant a large cluster of snapdragons the following day. All that is left is to put the flat of Impatiens in. That will have to wait another week, with our temps still a bit on the cold side.

All of the onions are standing up nicely and putting up new shoots. I ended up with over 160 onions with four different varieties. I'm hoping for a bumper crop this year.

These potatoes are getting huge since putting them outside. They will certainly get harvested very early this summer at the rate they are growing.

This area where the Lilac tree died is now ready for planting. I plan on putting zucchini in this area with some peppers, too.

The lettuce and arugula survived the light frost two nights ago and seem to finally be taking off. The far bed has signs of some beets finally sprouting.

You can see that the cabbages in the large frame are growing, and so are the weeds all over the stone paths. lol I will have to tend to them shortly.

Back in the greenhouse, the tomatoes are outgrowing the pots. I'm tempted to plant them this weekend even though it's a bit early.

The hanging baskets of Petunias have really started to fill in. I will put those out this weekend as they can handle cooler temps.

The peppers and zinnias on the top rack should have been transplanted into larger pots earlier this month. They are showing signs of stress. I don't know if I should do it now or wait to see if the weather warms up next week. It's a dilemma!

The flat of Marigolds is putting on flowers and will be ready to plant out into the vegetable garden this weekend. I guess I had better do some errands today while it is raining, and I will have all weekend to work in the gardens.

How's your spring gardening coming along? Soon, we will have everything planted and can sit back and watch them all grow. Right?