However it's also a good time to start planning for spring in the garden, and refreshing the plants after their winter break. As we look to create that jungle look the plants are often packed in and have to jostle for space, water and nutrients.
We have been planning to put in an irrigation system at the jungle end of the garden where the moisture loving tree ferns are. The kit for putting this in has been in the shed for a couple of years so we must try and get these in this year. Having said that, the summers in the last couple of years have not really been dry enough to have had to worry about irrigation. Hopefully this summer won't be such a wash out as the ones before! We give the whole garden a boost of fertilizer each spring, usually adding chicken manure pellets by the bucket load or sack. We bought several sacks in bulk last year when a local store had a sale, and have some left for this year but only enough for one section of the garden so we'll have to buy more.
Pelleted Chicken Manure (photo from Compost Direct)
We do like using chicken manure in the garden, it's easy to distribute and is not too obvious from a visual point of view, but it is still a manure and the neighbours are probably not that keen when we first place it in the garden. However the smell does seem to go fairly quickly.Whilst pelleted chicken manure is a handy fertilizer to use on most of the garden it is not appropriate on the various potted plants we have - especially those with a gravel mulch on top! We tend to use liquid fertilizer or a powdered one such as 'blood, fish, and bone' on the potted plants and always stock up on them in the autumn sales. Mark has a 'Stash in the Attic' and looks like we will be further reducing that in the coming months!
With the weather warming up (hopefully!!) not only do the plants start to grow again but the pests start to make a return. Slugs and snails try and eat the new shoots on plants like hostas, and the dreaded -vine weevils and their nasty little grubs re-appear. We tend to go for a double hit against the vine weevils, by use of chemical control and then also by introducing organic control in the form of nematodes. We do this twice a year, in both spring and autumn, Mark blogged about this last autumn.
Preparing the Nematodes
The final key part of preparing for spring is in mulching the garden, we like to refresh the way the jungle areas look by spreading a fresh mulch of bark chips over the ground. Helping to maintain ground moisture and suppressing weeds, ideally the mulch should be spread before many of the dormant perennials get going. Last year we ordered a jumbo bag of mulch rather than by purchasing it in smaller bags, saves on having to shift bags in the car and it was great having a large supply available for the garden. We will probably do the same again this year, ordering them once the weather warms a little more.Spring is full of little jobs to do and I love it, rather than see them as chores I see them all as welcoming signs that the garden is waking up!
Gaz
