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Are you
a
Yardner?
Yardeners don’t live to garden, they garden to live. |
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If you don’t know, don’t try to
look it up in the dictionary, because you won’t even
find the word in a dictionary yet. I first heard
the word this past winter, and at first thought I
had heard the person incorrectly. Then, of course,
it hit me that the speaker was referring to someone
who enjoys working in their yard, probably without
getting as carried away about it as most “gardeners”
do. Which means that all of those surveys which say
that gardening is the most popular hobby in America
will soon be saying that yardening is really the
most popular hobby, because I’m guessing that three
out of four gardeners are really yardeners.
Yardeners like a nice looking lawn, well-trimmed
shrubs in well-defined landscape beds. A shade tree
in the front yard, and two in the back. Most have a
well-used patio or deck with a nice barbeque and
comfortable patio furniture. In the summertime they
probably have a nice big pot of flowers by the front
door, and several pots and hanging baskets by the
patio or deck. On a sunny summertime weekend
afternoon they’re as likely to be boating or golfing
as gardening, I mean yardening.
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They enjoy buying a new lawn
mower as much as a buying a flat of perennials.
Gardeners like to refer to plants using their
botanical names. As in “What do you think of my
Quercus Macrocarpa?” Yardeners walk into a garden
center with a gardening magazine, point to a picture
and say, “Do you have any trees that look like
this?”
The mild Januarys and Februarys of recent winters
have given Wyobraska yardeners the opportunity to
get a head start on spring yard, garden, and
landscape work. No such luck this year, though.
Fire that groundhog, I say. She predicted an
early end to winter back in the first week of
February, but most of the nation, including
Wyobraska, had to wait another 5 weeks for that
“early end of winter” to arrive. Now that spring
seems to have finally arrived, Wyobraska yardeners
and gardeners alike are going to have some catching
up to do on their list of spring yard and landscape
work.
Here’s a list of a few high
priority landscape tasks, offered just in case your
Honey doesn’t quite know what to put on your
yardening list, formerly known as the Honey-Do
List.
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Previous Articles
2006 Articles |
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Water
trees and shrubs
It’s
probably still a little too early to turn on the
sprinkler system, but it’s not too early to water
trees and shrubs. The recent winds have already
begun to dry out landscape soils. The situation is
not critical yet, but a week or two of warm
springtime temperatures and wind will dry out the
soil quickly. And spring is the
season when adequate soil
moisture is very important for trees and shrubs.
If it doesn’t rain in the next two weeks, I’d
suggest you yardeners drag out the hose and
sprinklers and give your trees and shrubs a good
long early spring drink. Repeat once every two
weeks or so if it doesn’t rain.
Prune cool season ornamental
grasses and early summer perennials
Ornamental grasses are either cools
season grasses or warm season grasses. The cool
season ornamental grasses begin growing early in the
growing season, so it’s best to cut them back very
early in the spring—like RIGHT NOW!! If you wait
until April to do it, you’ll be cutting a lot of new
growth along with the old. It won’t hurt the plant
so much, as it will look odd for much of the growing
season. And if you know which of your perennials
bloom early in the summer, now is a good time to
clean those up as well. Actually, an easier way to
decide which perennials to clean up early vs. later
is to just clean up the ones that look messy now.
By the way the time to clean up warm season
ornamental grasses (like the tall pampas grass) is
late April. That’s also a good time to clean up
whatever perennials you don’t clean up now.
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Prune
trees and shrubs
Most yardeners like sharp things, so here’s your
chance to get some cold, hard steel into the palm of
your hand.
Fruit trees especially should be pruned in the next
month or so—if they need it.
Shade trees and flowering trees usually benefit from
an occasional pruning (every 2-3 years) when young.
First prune off broken or injured branches. Then
look for branches that are rubbing, crossing, or
otherwise seem to be in each other’s way—and prune
off one or the other. Don’t just prune off all of
the bottom branches and turn your tree into a
lollipop. It’s not good for the tree because young
trees need all of the good productive leaves that
they can hold in order to make the food they need to
grow fast and stay healthy. So pruning off the
lower branches before they are really in your way is
not good for the tree.
Mow your
lawn short (and bag the clippings)
Real yardeners have been itching to start up the
lawn mower, and they want to be the first person on
their block in the spring with a green lawn. So
this chore is a two-for for a yardener. Set your
mower on about the second lowest setting. Mow your
lawn. Bag the clippings. And you’ll probably have
a green lawn by Easter.
By the way. When you’re done with this first
mowing, set the mower height back up to the highest
setting, and put away the bagger. Your lawn will be
healthier through the summer if you mow it high and
mulch the clippings back
Mulch
This is
another great yardening chore. Mulch makes your
landscape beds look sharp, but it also drastically
reduces weed growth—and most yardners would rather
barbeque than pull weeds. You can add mulch to a
bed at any time of year, but it is often easiest to
do it in early spring before ornamental grasses,
perennials, and shrubs begin to grow for the
season. And it leaves more time for golfing and
fishing when the weather gets really nice.
Yardeners
don’t live to garden, they garden to live. I say,
it’s about time they got their own word.
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