Now that you’ve read up on how to get your garden ready for planting (we’re assuming you read the page right before this because you always read the Insider from cover to cover each week), it’s time to start thinking about when to plant.
We know it’s only March and a little late season snow (eek) might still be lingering on your beds, but this is the time when you want to start mapping things out. At least that’s what Concord Garden Club President Judith Maloy told us. And since she knows a lot more about gardening than both of us put together, we’re going to take her word for it.
Your daffodils and tulips – or whatever early season bulbs you’ve planted – will soon be making an appearance, if they haven’t already, but unfortunately they only last so long. And now is the time to make sure you’ve got stuff lined up to flower at all points in the growing season. The reality of living in New Hampshire is that the window for beautiful flowers and bushes to bloom in your yard is not all that long, so you’ve got to take advantage of the time you have.
“You try and plan your whole garden to bloom in stages,” Maloy said.
When there isn’t any snow and the ground is still soft and workable, that’s the time to split up some of your perennials that are set to bloom in the summer months, plants like evening primrose and sweet peas. You don’t need to tip-toe around the dividing process, just get in there with a shovel and move things around.
“They’re pretty hardy,” Maloy said. “You can cut right through them. You can’t really hurt them.”
If you didn’t get a chance to plant any bulbs last fall, you can throw some in now or just take a mental note of where you’d like to have them for next year. Gardening is all about seeing what works and switching things around when needed.
“In the early spring, I don’t plant a lot of perennials because I want to see what’s coming up,” Maloy said.
Now when it comes to annuals, there are a couple options. You could save a little cash and have a little more pride invested in the eventual blooms if you buy the bulbs early and plant them yourself. It might take some extra time and could keep you up at night wondering if you did everything right to ensure you’ll actually see flowers, but think of how awesome it would when it actually pops up.
“You get them in on the early side to get ahead of the short growing season,” Maloy said.
But if you’d rather take an easier route – and we don’t blame you – just buy the flowers (a great early season one is pansies) from a local nursery after they do all the work. From there, all you have to do is dig a hole in the ground and transplant them.
Although Maloy doesn’t suggest doing that just yet. With the unpredictable spring weather in New Hampshire, Maloy has a rule of thumb.
“I don’t put anything in until after Mothers Day,” she said.
You can also add a few flowering shrubs to the mix, like hydrangeas or azaleas, in the coming weeks, and it gives a nice look to any space.
“It adds to the dimension of your garden,” Maloy said.
We know you’re excited to get out there and play in the dirt, so have fun.
