Not So Fast! Gardening Tips for Early Spring by Donna Duffy

Yes, it does feel a bit like Spring outside. And yes, there are signs of life in your yard and garden. As tempting as it is, don’t go full-force into your gardening mode quite yet. Following are some gardening chores you can start right now, and others that you’ll need to wait to begin.

How plants manage the shift from winter to spring - by Richard B. Primack

Trees in cold climates have evolved protections against ice and snow.
Photo: Richard Primack CC BY-ND

If you’ve ever seen lilac bushes crushed by snowdrifts, then budding on a warm day just a few weeks later, you may wonder how plants tolerate such extremes.

Tolerating cold

On winter days when temperatures fall below freezing, animals will hibernate underground or huddle together in protected spots. But trees and shrubs have to sit there and take it - the tissues in their trunks, branches and roots are alive. How do they survive the freezing cold?

Denver Botanic Gardens Plant Sale 2021 by Nancy Shepard

Photo Denver Botanic Gardens

The Denver Botanic Gardens (DBG) is holding its popular Spring plant sale online again this year and will offer its wide selection of plants to gardeners of every skill level. It is regularly one of the most popular plant sales in the state.

The Spring or Vernal Equinox by Carol King

Photo www.almanac.com

The first day of Spring brings joy to every gardener’s heart marking the beginning of the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere. 

It is the unofficial opening of the new gardening season and regardless of the weather, we’re ready! Spring arrives here along the Front Range of Colorado on Saturday, March 20, 2021 at 3:47am MDT.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day by Vicky Spelman

Photo: Pixabay

You don't need to be Irish to wear green on St. Patrick's Day!

In Ireland, shamrocks are considered lucky and are worn and given as gifts on St. Patrick’s Day.  However, there is some disagreement as to the exact plant, but most growers will tell you that Trifolium repens, white clover, is the plant most commonly known as a shamrock.  What we consider to be a common lawn weed, is a native of Ireland. This plant has naturalized throughout North America in lawns, fields and roadsides. The flowers are attractive to bees and white clover is a nitrogen fixing plant which is used in crop rotation. Also a good forage plant for livestock.

Spring Bulb Companion: the Pasque Flower by Nancy Shepard

Photo by Manfredrichter

I’ve been regularly checking a spot in my garden to see one of my most favorite spring flowers – the Pasque flower, Pulsatilla patens. I first saw this flower at the Denver Botanic Gardens one spring and couldn’t get over its odd hairy beauty with its wispy stems and purple blooms. When it decides to push through the cold ground and snow, its delicate flowers look impervious to the conditions.  

Soil Test Best Way to Check Growing Potential of Garden by Vicky Spelman

 

CSU Soil Test

A soil test is the best way to check the growing potential of your garden. You can buy the most attractive plants in the greenhouse or order the best seeds, but they won’t produce the best results if the soil lacks the proper nutrition or the proper qualities the soil should have. The “routine” Garden and Landscape test will take the guess work out of your garden’s growing potential. It will guide you in deciding which nutrients are lacking and sometimes, more importantly, which you have too much of. Overfertilizing is a common gardening problem. It is not only expensive, but it may harm your garden’s production and our environment. CSU also enables you to have your garden retested at a discount to check on your garden’s progress.

Landscaping with Colorado Native Plants Conference 2021 by Nancy Shepard

Scrophularia macrantha (Red Birds in a Tree)

I attended the Landscaping with Colorado Native Plants conference on February 27^th, a day-long conference attended online by over 300 people. With 10 presentations from leading experts in the field, it was an impressive array of topics including which natives do well in the home landscape, where to buy them, and what they need to thrive. Among the many presenters were Jim Tolstrup, Executive Director, High Plains Environmental Center, Marcia Tatroe, whose photography and gardens have been featured in numerous books, magazines and televised gardening shows, David Salman, Chief Horticulturist for High Country Gardens, Alison Peck who created a landscape design/build company inspired by permaculture and edible landscapes, and Lisa Olsen, Chapter President of Front Range Wild Ones and a certified Native Plant Master.

Do you know the 5 types of bulbs? by Vicky Spelman

Pixabay: Anemones 

Bulb is defined as any plant that stores its complete life cycle in an underground storage structure.  The primary purpose and function of bulbs is to store nutrient reserves to ensure the plants’ survival.  Bulbs are usually perennials.  They have a time for growing and flowering that is followed by a period of dormancy when they will die back to ground level at the end of the growing season.

NGB presents the Hardy Hibiscus - by Vicky Spelman

Disco Belle Rosy Red from Sakata
National Garden Bureau

Have you tried adding some pizzazz to your yard/garden with a hibiscus plant?  Don’t confuse these hardy plants with their tropical cousins – these are capable of surviving to -30ºF (-34ºC).