Its Time to think Spring Clean Up for the Gardens

Now that Spring has official arrived it is time to prepare the gardens for the new growing season.
Here at  Enchanted Witchery Herbals its a time of excitement as we known when clean up begins its always a surprise as to what we will find beneath the blanket of natural Fall debris that is covering over the beds.
In the Fall we choose to allow for a certain amount of falling leaves to remain on the gardens and blanket the planting beds.  This gives a good ground covering for the Herbs and Perennials from the harsh Winters that we can have here in the North East, plus giving added benefits of extra organic matter as the leaves and debris break down providing essential nutrients to the soil.
During the Spring clean up the top layer of debris is removed and placed in the compost bin and the new baby plants are revealed.  We also get to see those sneaky weeds that have managed to find their way in while no one was watching.

Lemon Thyme

This is the best time to get in a good weeding habit.  Clear out all the weeds that have found their way into your garden beds by pulling up the roots by hand.  The ground is perfect for this right now as it is still very moist from the Spring thaw.
Do not try to take the quick way out of this, tilling will do nothing more then turn those roots under ground and in a few short weeks you will see the weeds popping up all over again, most times more then what were there to begin with.  So yes, manually weeding is always best to keep your garden clean from weeds that can strangle and take away valuable nutrients from your plants.

Lady's Mantle & Chamomile

Once you have weeded out the beds it is time to assess what you  now have.  Most Perennials and Herbs will multiply under the winter blanket.  Depending on the amount of  multiplication and the  time the plant has been in your garden will determine whether or not the plant should be divided.
One of the wonderful benefits of growing herbs & perennials is that  you will always have a bounty to use in additional planting beds or to share with others by dividing.
It is important that you do this or the plants can grow weak and will no longer produce as they should.
For most plants dividing is done every two to three years. With this cycle and if you have been growing your gardens for a few years dividing will be done every year on different plants keeping the bounty coming.

Spring is the best time to divide as the plants are healthy and in a strong growing cycle.  When dividing plants in the Spring it allows for the plant to have sufficient time to establish its rooting system before the hot days of summer arrive.  The early in the Spring the better.
As soon as we see that the babies are poking up through the leaves its time to divide.
This year we have gotten very lucky as the weather here was almost mild through out the winter season,  very little snow and ice and temperatures really not all that bad.
We have been out in the gardens for about two weeks now cleaning and dividing.. but I do caution... those new baby plants need to be mothered a bit.
Make sure for the first couple of weeks after dividing and transplanting to a new section that you provide them with plenty of water.  If rain comes along to help all the better, but do not let them struggle to obtain water.

Another watch for baby plants.. frost!  We have been blessed here to have some days that reached into the high 70's giving many of the plants the signal of a false start.  This past we we were fooled and three nights there were frost alerts for the area.  This means its time to get out the heavy plastic and burlap and cover over the newbies of the garden.  So yes mothering and paying close attention to weather conditions will insure that your garden grows as it should reaping all the benefits from what we sow.
Tomorrow... The proper way to divide and transplant in the Spring!