As Spring slowly but surely peeks out from it's winter blanket, many of you will find yourselves spending more and more time in your gardens.  How refreshing it is to see those bits of life emerging from the cold damp earth!  If you planted spring bulbs last fall, or in past years, you are already being rewarded with bright splashes of color.  This is a great time to take stock of the bare spots in the spring landscape and plan for planting bulbs this fall. 

In your travels around town, take note of eye catching spring gardens.  Perhaps a neighbor has a unique bloom that would look great in your landscape.  As bulbs emerge and bloom, think about color combinations, successive blooms and accents that you'd like to see in your garden.  Bulbs also make great fillers for those bare spots that will soon be filled by summer perennials. 

The toughest part about planning for spring blooms is remembering what you wanted to plant come fall, and just where exactly you already have bulbs planted!  There are various ways to overcome this: keep a garden journal, map out your garden beds, or place garden markers in your beds to identify what you've planted and what you want to plant.  Another great way to keep track of your spring beds is to simply photograph them at different phases and mark with a permanent marker on the photo itself.  Keep your photos organized in an album and refer back to them in the fall, when it comes time to buy and plant bulbs. 

As always, we here at Arcadia Gardens, LLC, are more than happy to help you with the project.  Just give us a call or drop us an email!

First the positive:
1. Plants LOVE a good snow mulch
2. Cold weather weeds like bittercress aren't germinating
3. No frost heaving of perennials
4. Plenty of moisture in the soil come spring time
5. Potentially less bugs this coming spring- maybe even a reduction of really bad ones like Emerald Ash Borer

Now for the negatives:
1. There's going to be a lot of broken limbs this spring. 
Snow plow damage, ice and snow accumulation, strong winds, etc. are doing a number on the woody shrubs, ornamental trees and evergreens this year.  If you're going to take it on yourself, start with sharp pruners and saws, and make clean cuts in the correct location.  Don't just remove the broken branch at the snap, consider the future growth pattern of the plant as well as proper location for the wounded bark to seal itself.

2. Animal damage. 
Those cute little creatures that you love to watch have been hungry this winter.  Very, very hungry and as such have been helping themselves to plants that they don't usually eat.  If you have a rabbit population, you'll find that some of your shrubs will be missing all their bark at the snow line.  If you have deer, well...I'm sorry.  The regular winter forage of animals (in a typical snow fall year) consists of dried grasses and small, tender buds and branches.  This has all been under snow cover since early December, so they have been eating what they can reach- the bark and buds of your favorite shrubs and small trees.  And in regards to the not so cute creatures? The voles, mice and other rodents have been busy tunneling under all that snow and creating havoc in their own special ways.

3. Winter burn.
Evergreens in particular are susceptible to winter burn, as they continue to photosynthesis all winter. This may show up on the side of the plant exposed to wind or sun first, but often the whole tree is effected. When the ground freezes solid, or the frost line goes too deep, moisture is no longer available to replace that which is lost by the needles during transpiration.  The needles will turn brown, or in the case of broadleaved evergreens like Rhododendrons, the terminal buds will abort.  There are ways to prevent this, including treating newly planted evergreens with anti-desiccant before winter sets in, selecting varieties that aren't as susceptible, installing screens or wraps, and carefully plant placement.

4. Snow mold.
Yuck!  Your lawn looks terrible this spring- what happened to all that lush green grass you were looking forward to mowing?  Snow mold most often occurs during winter conditions like this one- the first snow falls on unfrozen turf, and then the snow cover persists for three months or more.  Sigh.

5. Cold blasted buds.
Many of the plants we grow here are marginally hardy.  Magnolia, redbud, dogwood, azalea, fruit trees such as cherry, peach and plum can all be nipped in the bud, so to say, by a long period of record low temperatures.  Will it kill the trees?  Probably not, but it will definitely damage the new buds. These plants all do well here, buffered by the lake effect we enjoy from Lake Michigan. We may not see flowers this year and possibly have lots of dead spots on the tips of the branches.  New growth may come from latent buds, rather than the usual ends of the branches.  Wait until new growth has started pushing before you do any pruning to remove the dead spots.

Concerned about what your landscape is going to look like come spring?  Give us a ring or email, we'll help talk you through it!