WHAT IF …
If the garden magazines , web pages and other data reservoir are to be believed , the humankind is full of gardeners who worry a lot about cause and core . Most of them are fussy — too busy sometimes to do the things that they think they ought to do in the garden . This is a frequent origin of guilt , and since guilt feelings has no place in the garden , it demand to be deal out with . The following is a serial publication of “ What if ” questions often asked by dying gardener , with appropriate response .
What if I do n’t do return K clean up ?
Your little quarter Akka will not look as tidy as your neighbor ’s G , especially if he has paid a landscaper to take maintenance of his job . Raking rubble out of your beds facilitate prevent the obnoxious microorganisms that lurk among the garden detritus and threaten the health of your plants . cut down numb stalks of pass perennials and pulling out the dead annuals relieve you shape in the spring , and cap the grow season rather neatly . On the other paw , some of those stalking , such as those of Russian Blue Sage ( Perovskia atriplicifolia ) add to wintertime interest group in the garden . The pick is up to you . If you are brusk of time , take fifteen minutes and lop off everything that you cogitate is ugly .
What if I do n’t rake my leaves ?
This one is easy . If the layer of break down leaves are lying on top of lawn grass for too long , the grass will fail . This is fine if you are trying to kill the grass in club to make a new garden seam . However , if you value your lawn , get the leaves off it . They will decay wherever you put them , and they are much honest off moulder on a compost piling , than on your expensive Zoysia grass .
What if I do n’t carve up my perennial ?
separate perennials before the first arduous frost is a wonderful idea , and give you a head embark on on next spring . On the other handwriting , spring is an equally dependable prison term to divide , and it is moderately easy to do when the comparatively small recurrent plants are emerging after their winter slumbers . If you do n’t divide in natural spring or fall , eventually you will belike have a problem . Many perennial start to decease back in the center if they are not divided regularly . This break down - back effect both the flavour and the health of the works . Even if an undivided plant does not seem to be suffer from a terminal case of the uglies , finally it will believably get too large for the allotted distance . I saw an enormous old hosta once that had probably never been divided . The plant life had just about engulfed an intact city pavement slab .
What if I do n’t prune my shrubs at the right meter ?
Many people never clip their shrubs at all because they are afraid that lightening will fall upon them if they do it at the ill-timed time . This is a vile rumor started by manufacturers of pruning equipment . In accuracy , the best time to prune your shrub is whenever you have the fourth dimension to do it , but definitely , sometime before they grow big enough to completely blot out your house . If you prune a spring - flowering shrub thoroughly in recent winter , luck are you wo n’t have much in the way of spring blossom , regardless of whether the bush flowers on new or old wood . If you accompany that practice every class , eventually you will find yourself write to a “ Gardener ’s Q&A ” to expect why your efflorescence shrub never seems to create flower . As a world-wide rule , you should crop flowering shrubs justly after they flower . If you do n’t screw whether the shrub in question flowers on new or honest-to-god woods , rivet your pruning effort on the ramification that have just produced blossoms .
What if I do n’t get around to planting all my spring electric-light bulb ?
you could establish spring bulb right through December , as long as the footing has not freeze hard . Keep the bulbs in a cool place such as a service department or cellar until you may get to the chore . If January cast around , and you are still harboring unplanted tulips , daffodils and crocuses , the best thing to do is plant them in large pots and put the weed outside . They will not bloom as early as if you had plant them in the land in a timely way , but most of them will flower finally . After the ground warms up in the spring , place those sight full of emerging shoot in the empty smirch in your garden , or unpot them and plant the masses of filth and lightbulb in the terra firma . They will return in subsequent years as if you had never neglect them .
What if I never pay any aid to gardening advice ?
You will have something in rough-cut with about 98 % of the population . Not listen to gardening advice means that when you go out in the garden , you will have to come down back on common sensation . This is something you should do anyway . After all , vernacular common sense is just like a really good repeated plant ; if you tame it and share it , it increases by bounce and bounds .
Yellow RoseSWORD LILIESCHANGE IN THE GARDENUNFORGETTABLEFRESH VEGGIES
