Friday, April 27, 2007

Happy Arbor Day!

Another perfect weekend appears to be on tap.

When it comes to lawns, you can start putting down grass seed now. Remember to know your conditions – sun or shade and buy the right grass seed.

Hold off on the crabgrass preventer. It is still to early – patience will pay off with this one. The biggest mistake is putting it down to early.

I saw the first dandelions blooming yesterday – of course it was someone else’s yard and not my own. You can spot spray them with Weed-Be-Gone or go eco-friendly and dig them out. It’s important to get the entire long root out when pulling dandelions or they will grow back.

Last year, my containers were done in white blooming plants and lots of plants that had green and white foliage. The white garden is high on the trend list for this year too. My planters got lots of rave reviews last year. If you have never done all white do consider it. It was refreshing and clean looking. I will talk about white gardens and moonlight gardens in another blog posting.

What will I be doing in my 30 plus containers this year? For me it is the year of “tangerine”. Yes, I’m doing orange. Orange mixed again with lots of foliages. Orange can be tricky – I don’t want peach colors. I want bright tangerine. It’s still too early to plant the containers, but I plan on getting them all prepped and ready this weekend. I’ll give you rundown of the plants I plan on using in a future blog posting.

One other color that your garden should ALWAYS have in it is blue. Why? It brings the color of the sky down into your garden. Also, blue goes with everything and helps bring out the colors of other plants.

If you are up tomorrow morning at 8a.m., tune into 5 Eyewitness News Weekend Morning. I’ll be in my yard giving some grass seeding tips and also tree planting tips.

Happy Arbor Day!

Make your day and weekend a good one.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Magnolias in Minnesota

Tomorrow (Friday)is Arbor Day. Here in Minnesota it is the last Friday of April. I'll be showing some tips on tree planting today during 5 Eyewitness News at 4 and then again Friday morning during 5 Eyewitness News Midday.

Speaking of trees, the beautiful magnolias are in bloom right now. Yes, you can grow magnolias in Minnesota. There are three that I see every day on my drive to and from work – they are spectacular right now. A few varieties hardy in this area include Leonard Messel, Merrill and Royal Star. While they are different then those that grow further south, it is a great way to give your yard some southern charm.

If you have kids who like to color, here is a link to a website that has trees that you can easily print out for your kids to color in celebration of Arbor Day.
Who can’t use some more refrigerator art? Click here

I’ll have some more tomorrow – including what my plan is with my container gardens.

Make your day a good one.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Spring Cleaning... for the Yard

The weekend is here and weather permitting, it will be time to finish up the early spring yard work.

If you are wondering what you should get done, refer to my last posting. The only thing that I'm adding to the list is putting down a fresh layer of cypress mulch around some of the shrubs and perennials. I have an every other year mulching rotation. Mulching keeps the moisture in the soil so I have to water less and more importantly, it keeps weeds from growing.

It is still too early to put down any crabgrass control and dandelion control - so don't even think of doing either of those yet.

I'm going to spend some time planning out what plants will be planted in my container gardens. I already know what color I will be going with this year and for that, you will have to check back here next week. (That is called a tease.)

Make your weekend a good one.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

A New Season

Ready - Set - Go

Here we go for another season of home and gardening blogging. Like last year, I’ll give you a glimpse into what is going on in my own yard and tell you what you should be doing and not doing as we go through the spring and summer.

Our weather finally looks like it is turning around and some warmer days are ahead. I was out of town the weekend we had the 70 degree days, so I have a lot to do this weekend in my yard including:

1) Cut back all the perennials, rake and bag up.
2) Cut back the spirea shrubs to ground level.
3) Get the furniture out of the garage and on the deck.
4) If it is dry enough, rake the lawn and bag up all the leaves.
5) Plant some pansies in the front planters.

I mentioned pruning the spirea. At this time of year you should ONLY prune summer blooming shrubs which include the spirea, potentilla and hydrangea. Leave everything else alone - that includes trees and evergreens.

Other then raking the lawn right now, there is nothing else you should be doing now with your lawn. Wait for a couple more weeks to put down grass seed. Let the soil warm up first. It’s also way to early to put down anything on your lawn for crabgrass control or dandelion control. As a rule of thumb, crabgrass control should be put down when the lilacs are blooming.

Make your weekend a good one!