Home Gardening

Getting Ready for Spring
Garden Tips Newsletter - February 12, 2001

Spring is fast approaching and many of us are ready for it to arrive. To add a sense of spring to your home bring in branches of forsythia, pussy willow, quince, spirea, and dogwood. You can forces these branches to bloom by making long slanted cuts when collecting the branches. Place them in a vase of lukewarm water and wait for them to bloom. Change the water every 3-4 days. The branches should bloom in 3-4 weeks. To prepare your landscape for spring, begin cleaning up plants or plant parts that have died or become diseased over the winter. Now is also the time to start sowing warm season flower, vegetable, and herb seeds indoors for transplant into your garden. Hold off on pruning your roses, shrubs, and trees for 1-2 more weeks.

Note: Since the weatherman is calling for us to have rain all week, now is a good time to examine your landscape and see where you are having drainage problems. Note where the water is puddling in your yard/flower beds -- you will either need to build these areas up or provide a way for the water to drain from these areas.

These archived newsletters were written by Dr. Lelia Scott Kelly. Kelly is a Horticulture Specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. Her office is in the North Mississippi Research & Extension Center, Verona.