Freshening up close to home inspiring
As May moves forward, we are definitely living with signs of spring: warmer weather, longer days and singing birds. Nature is awakening and we are on the move to prepare our summer gardens.
May's warm weather invites us outdoors. Begin your spring cleaning by focusing on the areas you see most frequently, such as outside of your kitchen window or your front walkway.
Freshening up close to home inspires us with the success of a clean garden area, where spring bulbs are blooming and birds are searching for worms. Once the debris is cleaned away and dead branches are pruned, apply mulch to suppress weeds.
Work your way farther from your house each time you are spring cleaning, and soon enough your gardens will pop back to life.
Removing wet leaves, twigs and other debris from the garden is like removing wrapping paper from a present. What garden delight will you find under the leaves?This year, I found blooming hellebore, emerging Asian ginger leaves, snowdrops and a few trillium. Seeing these wonders of nature gives us inspiration to keep cleaning and mulching.Utilize finished compost and turn the pile to make room for more compostable materials.Water gardens deserve a spring cleaning too. Scoop out water garden debris and add it to your compost pile. If you have fish active in the water, feed them; usually, fish become active when temperatures reach 50 degrees Fahrenheit.Continue to clean out vegetable gardens by removing weeds or cutting back winter cover crops.Soil test if you have not done it in the past few years or if you are changing crops.Check on the status of your peas, onions, lettuce and spinach seedlings. Protect them from hungry wildlife or family pets.
Prepare for planting root crops, such as carrots and beets.Birds can also benefit from spring cleaning. Remove old nesting materials from bird houses. Repair broken houses and install new houses to welcome this year's occupants and clean and repair bird feeders to welcome hungry birds.Lawn cleanup is ongoing. Look for this year's lawn weeds and manually remove emerging weeds. Eliminate lawn weeds by obtaining a soil test and amending as recommended. Many times, the soil pH is out of balance, which promotes weed growth. Note bare patches and prepare for reseeding by lightly raking the area, apply seed and covering with straw.Outdoor spring cleaning brings us closer to planting, harvesting and enjoying nature.Now, who is ready to tackle indoor spring cleaning?Lisa Marie Bernardo, Ph.D., RN, has been a Penn State Master Gardener in the county since 2003.
