Seasonal Tips - Perennial Care
Seasonal Tips - Perennial Care
Preparations for Winter
You do not need to fertilize your perennial garden any more this year, as you don’t want to encourage new growth that will expose the plant to damage during the winter freezes. Remove any dead or dying plant tops, unless you are leaving those with seeds for birds to feed on during the winter.
When the ground has frozen, add mulch to all your perennials. This can be clean straw, evergreen branches, or any other light, clean material. Your goal is not to keep them warm, but to keep them frozen until spring. If you mulch your perennials too soon, they will stay warm under the mulch and rot. In addition, diseases can overwinter on infected plant parts. Be sure to remove all fallen leaves and dead stems from your perennials before applying the mulch. Keep your eye on the mulch for small rodents during the winter, and use whatever tools you prefer (traps, D-Con, etc.) to eliminate them before the feast on all your carefully tended plants.
Spring Care
Mulch removal
You can pull the mulch back in March, but keep it handy in case the weather turns severe. By April you should be able to eliminate the winter mulch completely – but remember to always avoid working in your garden when the soil is wet as this will compact the soil and potentially kill your plants. Check for any plants that have “heaved” out of the ground (due to freezing and thawing of the ground) and be sure they are firmly replanted. Exposed roots from heaving will cause plant roots to dry out, and kill the plant.
Watering and Fertilizing
Remove any old tops that were left over the winter (either for birds or for esthetics) and rake out any leftover leaves or other debris. This reduces the chance of disease. Also be sure that water doesn’t collect around the crowns of plants, as this will encourage rot and kill the plant. (Remember, water in the morning if you must water – watering late in the day or in the evening doesn’t give the water time to evaporate off the plant and can also cause plant-killing rots.) Be sure your plants get about an inch of water a week – not a problem at this time of the year, so you should only need to do your own watering if there’s an unexpected early drought.
Don’t forget to pay attention to your mulch layer as well. Organic mulches (such as hardwood or cedar) will decompose over time, requiring replacement, and this is a good time of year to do that. A good layer of mulch not only helps reduce the weeds and keeps soil from compacting (thereby ensuring there’s sufficient air in the soil for your plants to be able to grow and absorb nutrients), it also keeps water from evaporating, and reduces the chances that heavy rains will splash water up onto the plant, which can spread diseases. Remember, when you’re doing the water (when Mother Nature isn’t doing it for you) to water the plant, not the leaves – keep the water at the base of the plant. This is most easily done with a watering wand or soaker hose.
Fertilize your perennials to provide approximately 1 pound if nitrogen per 1,000 square feet of garden. This is roughly the equivalent of 1 pound of 10-10-10 fertilizer for 100 square feet. Whether you use a dry or water-soluble fertilizer, be sure to follow the instructions. Too much fertilizer is just as bad as too little, as it will burn the plant and perhaps even kill it.
Other Spring Care
If you notice root or crown rots emerging as your perennials come out of dormancy, treat them immediately with a good fungicide. Catching these early means you should only need to treat your perennials once for rots.
If you suspect that you have slugs, treat those early as well. It’s much easier to eliminate tiny slugs before they’ve done damage, than it is to control adult slugs. Slugs will hatch as soon as the weather warms, so put out slug baits now to get as many as you can.
Put in supports for your tall plants now – and let them grow through the supports. This will look much more natural, and will not damage the plants as they would if you were to put them in after the plants had grown.
Be careful using insecticides or other poisons to get rid of bugs, as these will kill the good bugs as well as the bad. For example, ladybugs are good bugs, as their larvae will feast on bad bugs and their young. You can buy ladybugs and other helpful bugs either through the internet or at high-scale garden centers (be sure to call before you go, to make sure they have the bugs you want). Some garden centers will special order bugs for you – ask and you may be surprised at how many organic options you have!
Continue to fertilize once a month (until August) and to remove weeds when they are young so they don’t compete with your garden.
And remember to keep track of your garden activities and the weather in your garden journal – this will help you in future years as you try to anticipate that last frost date, or when you should be replacing spent mulch, providing water, or putting down the first fertilizer of the season.