Daylight saving time makes the days last longer, so stroll around your home in the early evening hours. Take a notepad with you and make a to-do list. Where are sticks that need to be picked up? Do you have bare spots in your lawn that need to be reseeded? Will you need to divide the daffodils that are coming up?
If you’ve been keeping a journal, now is the time to review the plants, trees, roses or shrubs that have not performed to your high expectations. Sometimes they just seem to know that they are on your “dead plant walking” list and find new exuberance, hoping to regain your favor. If not, start thinking about what could take their places and get rid of the slackers before pity enters your heart!
When forsythias are in bloom, it’s time to prune! Remove all dead, broken and damaged (those wascaly wabbits!) branches. If you have a shrub that needs to be rejuvenated because it looks overgrown and the branches are crowded, remove a quarter of the oldest branches by cutting them to the ground and new shoots will appear. Every few years I get drastic with the red twig dogwood in our front yard and cut all of it down to the ground. Kent finds this action to be draconian, so I try to do it when he’s not looking and most of the time he doesn’t notice until the shrub looks surprisingly “better than ever.” The quote is Kent’s own words. If it is a flowering shrub, wait until it is finished blooming, but not much longer so that you don’t remove next year’s blooms.
In April, take advantage of every warm day to get a head start. May will not be as hectic if you take this advice.
And if you’re not a gardener, notice the beauty of our spring all around us. If I ever win the lottery (a big one!) I would always live in spring with homes strategically placed around the globe. But for now, Naperville does spring very nicely.
The Naperville Garden Club is looking for homes to be featured on our Cup of Cheer™ House Walk, Holiday Market and Tea to be held Thurs., Dec. 6 and Fri., Dec. 7. If you’d like your home to be considered, please contact Cup of Cheer™ Chairman Gwenn Lloyd at (630)717-7886 or rdglloyd@sbcglobal.net.
We also are planning a plant sale to be held in early May. For details not available by my deadline, visit www.napervillegardenclub.org.
Please come to our meeting on April 25 featuring a program on terrariums.
