Gardens in Creemore

March, April, May

Sometimes those lovely spring days call you to get into your garden – but resist the urge to clean up too early as all those beneficial insects that overwintered in your leaf litter may need some time to wake up and move on.

• Plant flower and vegetable seeds indoors
• Prune fruit trees until spring buds swell. Choose a day above freezing. (Maple and birch should not be pruned until they leaf out)
• Remove winter protection from shrubs and evergreens – on an overcast day- to lessen the chance of sun scorch
• Disinfect your bird feeders (& houses!) by scrubbing with a 10% bleach solution
• Apply corn gluten meal after the snow melts to control dandelions and crabgrass
• Once the temperature is above 5 degrees, dormant spray for fruit trees before spring growth begins
• Pick up sticks and branches while you survey your yard, make note of any tree limbs that need to be removed or cabled.
• Mulch around shrubs

• Gently press frost heaved plants back into the soil
• Top dress gardens with 1-2” of compost or humus, before bulbs start to emerge and before you plant seeds
• If you left your ornamental grasses intact last fall, go ahead and prune them back to 6-8”. Easier to prune ferns before the new fronds emerge. Clip off tattered leaves of hellebores and epimediums, any perennials that bloom with the first breath of spring.        
• Remove dead and damaged branches from woody plants.
• Thin and trim summer blooming shrubs that bloom on new wood; Butterfly bush, Diervilla, Smooth or Panicle hydrangea, Potentilla, Rose of Sharon, roses
• Plant cool hardy vegetables such as peas, spinach and lettuce. Sweet peas and calendula can be direct sown in the garden as soon as the soil can be worked
• Rake the lawn if not too wet
• Rake and remove mulches from flower beds. Be careful to avoid snapping off the delicate new shoots of peonies, hostas and day lilies
• Cut down last year’s perennial foliage and toss in the compost
• Plant spring containers with potted bulbs, forsythia branches, pussy willows. Annuals that will tolerate cold soil are pansies, osteosperum daisies and artemesia
• Top dress lawn with ¼” of compost, overseed with grass seed to fill in bare spots
• Harden off plants started indoors
• Plant perennials, shrubs, trees
• Sow vegetables and flowers seeds that prefer cooler soil
• Prune spring blooming shrubs and trees after flowering; azalea, deutzia, elderberry, forsythia, lilac, ninebark, spirea, weigelia
• Avoid pruning Bigleaf hydrangea, Oakleaf and Mountain hydrangea, rhododendron, holly and viburnums where you want to have berries for the birds.
• Transplant tender flowers and vegetables after risk of frost passes
• Give gardens a fresh layer of mulch to suppress weeds and retain moisture
• Check trees for tent caterpillars and other insects

June, July, August

• Sow vegetables & flower seeds that prefer warmer soil
• Prune evergreen and hedges
• Stake plants that need support; peonies, daisies, cosmos
• Refresh your containers with long blooming flowers and interesting foliage plants
• Check plants for pests and handpick
• Weed
• Raise the height of the blade on your lawn mower to protect the lawn from drought
• Prune climbing roses
• Use a soaker hose to keep trees, shrubs and perennials well watered during periods of drought
• Deadhead annuals to encourage more blooming
• Did I say weed?
• Check roses, nasturtiums for aphids (spray with hose)
• After flowering cut delphiniums to the ground to stimulate a second bloom
• Monitor lawn for grubs
• Go on a garden tour and take notes for next year
• Sow cool weather veg (kale, spinach, lettuce, onion) for fall harvest

September, October, November

Now is not the time to be too eager with your garden clean up.  The birds will appreciate you leaving seed heads intact and the beneficial insects will be looking for garden litter & leaves to burrow into over the winter.

• Still more weeding
• Harvest your vegetables and figure out new ways to deal with a surplus of zucchini
• Divide overgrown perennials and share or pot up for next year’s plant sale
• Time to renovate your containers with fall showstoppers like ornamental kale, mums
• Plant new summer flowering perennials
• Fertilize your lawn
• Water shrubs and trees well right up to when the ground freezes
• Remove fallen fruit
• Mulch roses
• Plant spring bulbs such as tulips, crocus, daffodils, alliums
• Turn off water taps and store hoses, sprinklers
• Dig up those dahlias and gladiolus, canna, tuberous begonias and store
• Apply a top dressing of shredded leaves to flower and veg gardens, excess leaves off the lawn go into the compost

• Put shelter tents around your evergreens and tender shrubs to protect from drying winter wind and sun
• Plant amaryllis and paperwhites for Christmas blooms
• Clean leaves from gutters and downspouts
• Clean your garden tools, sharpen your mower blade and your pruners
• Make notes of your garden with key learnings, reminders for next year and what you want to change
• Peruse nursery catalogues and dream of next year’s garden