The Spring Garden Progresses Ever Onward

We’re in full fledged spring garden mode here in Tennessee. What does that mean you ask? Everything is blooming or budding. While allergy sufferers dread this time of year it still remains my favorite. I love the bright green colored grass as it comes up fresh from the earth. I love the play of the colors in my yard. My absolute favorite at the moment is the combination of redbuds and Yoshino cherry blooms; both of which grow very nicely in Tennessee. The early spring bulbs are sill emerging from the soil. The newest to arrive are the tulips. My tulips were planted years ago as a boxed combination of ‘Negrita’ and ‘Shirley’. Unfortunately they have diminished over the years due to my ever changing garden. It will be time this fall to add some new tulips into the garden.

As the spring garden progresses the chores must also commence. One does not simply imagine a garden to be! We have to work for it and plan and even then it sometimes does not come out as imagined. I’ve planted some early garden plants from seed in the vegetable garden. Vegetables like beets, carrots, radishes, chives, and onions from seed. I’ll count myself lucky to get anything with the onions as they are from old seed and onion seed has a terrible germination rate if not fresh. Peppers and tomato plants are started and in the greenhouse. A cold front is reportedly on its way so no planting outdoors with those warm season plants until later. It’s OK, I can be patient.

What else is progressing in the spring garden? My garden fence is up. Not the fence I want it to be, but the fence I need it to be for now. I have wooden posts up around the vegetable garden with netting stapled to them. I WILL eat food from the garden and the deer WILL NOT in 2016. I am determined! The deer are voracious plant predators and have decimated my garden in the past. Last fall they even nibbled down my blueberry bushes to the point where I will have very few berries from the bushes in the yard. I purchased two more bushes last fall and put them in pots on the back deck so at least we’ll manage a few plump blueberries this summer.

I’ve moved the strawberries out of the vegetable garden into a raised bed outside of the main garden. Strawberries are great but they can easily take over a space with their runners. As I find each wayward strawberry plant I transplant it into the new bed and I am gradually filling it up.

I did a major spring garden cleaning and threw away a ton of old broken pots. Plastic pots degrade in the sun and eventually you have to get rid of them. I have plenty of pots still to use should I need to but this year my need for pots is greatly diminished. I’ve been so busy with work that I am having to put my garden business (Blue Shed Gardens) on hiatus for this year. I hope to get back to it eventually but usually the path forward to your goal is not simply a straight line.

The lawn is as green as ever! Unfortunately the Bermuda grass continues to creep into the lawn. I didn’t plant it, but somehow it found my yard and my garden. Now is a great time to plant grass seed for fescues. Fall is better but if you never got around to it you still have some time to get it growing. Speaking of grass, make sure you mow it correctly. The easiest way to get a weed filled lawn is to mow the grass too short. SO MANY people do this then put chemicals on the lawn and kill of the weeds. It just isn’t necessary. Let fescues grow longer and thicker and they will take care of a lot of the weeds for you. Their leaves block the light and prevent germination of those pesky weed seeds.

I think that’s all the updates I have for tonight. I have a few review posts coming including a battery operated mower and a book so I hope you’ll check back soon to see them! Have a Happy Easter!