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A Prairie Garden Journal
by Dick Meyer
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Yes,
it's time
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Spring emerges in another week
or so on what seems a very different landscape from
that on which the leaves fell what now seems like
half a lifetime ago. But even though much of the
wealth of a generation has seemingly disappeared in
the span of single winter, I suspect that a spirit
of hope and optimism will reemerge along with the
tulips and daffodils this spring. At times like
this there is a certain comfort to be found in
spending time among trees, shrubs, birds, and
flowers, none of which spend a single moment of
their lives worrying about making the next mortgage
payment, the losses in their retirement account, or
losing their health insurance. They grow, they
bloom, they sing. How hard can life be?
I ended last year’s columns with a pledge to devote
most of this year’s columns to the subject of
promising new plants, suitable for use in Wyobraska
landscapes. And except for a column or two about
the chores of early spring landscape care and few
other probable topical detours from time to time
throughout the coming months, that is what I intend
to do.
But first, if you want some good news for a
change—check out the tree and shrub prices in your
favorite garden center this spring. The housing and
construction boom in the United States has been
going on for almost 15 years with no let up.
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To meet the demand for new
trees and shrubs for all of those new homes and
commercial businesses, nurseries have been
increasing production for years and still the
available supply of trees and shrubs never quite
seemed to catch up to the demand. Trust me, it just
caught up.
That excess supply will be greatest this year, and
may even last another year, before nurseries are
able to slash their production to reflect the lower
levels of new home construction that are likely for
the next several years.
Small over and undersupply cycles were common in the
nursery business before the recent prolonged housing
boom. But the current oversupply of nursery stock
will likely be the largest ever, and will produce
real bargains of high quality trees and shrubs for a
couple of years. 2009 will be a great time to plan
a new or add to an existing landscape. With gas
prices also at long-time lows, you’ll be able to
afford to make several trips to the garden
center—even if your 401K turned into a 201K this
past winter.
And if that didn’t cheer you
up, here’s a few late winter/early spring lawn,
garden, and landscape chores to help take your mind
off your problems.
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Previous Articles
2008
Articles
2007 Articles
2006 Articles
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Cut back feather reed grass. Feather
reed grass can begin sending out new growth
quite early in the spring. It’s not unusual to
find it beginning to grow by mid March. If you
wait until late March to cut this ornamental
grass back, you’ll almost certainly be cutting
off 2-3 inches of new growth along with last
year’s straw, and I think that detracts from the
natural appearance of the plant. I suggest
cutting feather reed back to about six inches in
height. An electric hedge trimmer works
great—or do it with a good hand pruners. When
you cut it back early in the season, it’s also a
good idea to brush your hand back and forth
through the remaining stubble to knock loose
straw out of the clump. That makes room for
more new growth in the center of the clump.
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Prune fruit trees. Late February through
March is a great time to prune fruit trees.
Fruit trees are making somewhat of a comeback in
residential landscapes and home gardens. If you
are one of the homeowners participating in this
trend, you may want to see if your recently
planted tree could use a little corrective
pruning. Fruit trees could be pruned every
year, but as a general rule, pruning every two
to three years will still create a well-shaped
and productive tree. There are many good
internet sites that show the “how-to” of pruning
fruit trees, so I’d suggest that you simply
Google “how to prune fruit trees” when you’re
ready to do the job, print off the illustration
and head out to the orchard—or the cherry tree
in the back yard.
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Clean up perennials. While you’re out
there cutting back the feather reed grass, it’s
not too early to clean up some of the other more
unsightly perennial stalks, too. Purple
coneflower, Russian sage, yarrow, may night
salvia, goldenrod, Joe Pye weed, are all
perennials whose stalks begin to break down by
late winter, and cleaning them up in early March
will certain do no harm to the plants. You may
want to simply cut back the stalks now, but not
necessarily rake up all of the leaves or clean
up too much around the base of the plants. It’s
probably best to leave the layer of old leaves
that have blown in around the base of these
perennials and been matted down by the winter
snows. If you’re raking up the old perennial
stalks, do it lightly—just whisking the stalks
into a pile where you can pick them up. That
layer of leaves can still be protecting the
crown or growing point of these plants from the
cold morning temperatures that are a normal part
of a Wyobraska spring. For that matter, there’s
really no need to clean up those old leaves—just
let the new perennial growth cover it up as they
emerge in turn over the coming weeks and months.
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Aerate the lawn. Early spring is a good
time to aerate the lawn. It’s usually the time
of year when the soil is the loosest and easiest
for the tines of the aerator to penetrate—that
means a good, deep aeration—a deeper root system
for your lawn, easier watering this summer, and
a greener, healthier lawn.
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Mow the lawn—short. By the middle of
March, your neighbors probably won’t think
you’re crazy if you get out and mow your lawn.
Mowing your lawn short, and bagging the
clippings, is the easiest way to get your lawn
to green up early in the spring. It actually
may not actually green up any earlier, but by
mowing off the old blades of grass, you’ll be
able to see the new growth sooner. Save these
grass clippings for garden mulch or the compost
pile. Then switch over to a mulching mower for
the rest of the season.
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Improve your garden soil. It’s not too
early to work a little compost into you
vegetable garden, or into a new landscape bed.
If you’ve got a real serious case of spring
fever, doing the soil amending and site
preparation for a new landscape bed can be some
strong medicine, if you know what I mean.
Yes, it’s time already!
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