Early Spring Earth Gardens

Ooooh is it dry and windy in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado!  As long as you have done an additional, supplemental watering in the past two months, you can be sure that your established trees and shrubs are well watered to the tap root level. If you have new plantings, check and see if the soil is still moist 6” down. The best way to do this? Stick your finger in the soil. The first three inches will dry out with little to no issue for the plant, but months of little to no moisture means you’ll need to do a deep watering.

For those of you experiencing rains, you know you don’t need to water. You’re watching to see where erosion is happening faster than you’d like. Now is the time to plan for one rock dams, berms and swales to divert and store excess water.

This is the second to last time to prune fruit trees in the northern hemisphere—well before things warm up. Take off rogue branches, crossing branches, and any water suckers that may have developed. This should be done from late fall to Early Spring. The next time you’ll prune the trees is in the summer for fruit production. Most fruit trees can be removed by 1/3 each year, but consult with a local expert for your variety.

On these warm sunny days when we can work the soil here, I’m busy planting cold hearty vegetables and transplanting flowers and shrubs to better locations. This work will continue in March and April, which are really the second-best times to do new plantings. Fall is nearly always the best time to plant perennials, but a better selection of healthy specimens are about to be available in the nearby nurseries. I’m getting excited!

If you have trees and shrubs that started looking weak at the end of the last growing season, consider adding iron to the drip line of the plant. (Remember, the drip line is the area beneath the canopy of a tree or shrub that naturally sheds rainwater.) Because iron applications can “burn” the greenery if it isn’t done correctly and some iron products don’t get assimilated very well because of our clay soils, be sure to follow package instructions carefully. In fact, that is one of the best pieces of wisdom from the Master Gardener’s classes that I remember: READ the LABEL. The other? KNOW your SOIL.

Finally, a thank you to those of you who already said you’d be willing to provide a testimonial about what it was/is like working with Terra Linda. I have worked on some amazing properties over the years with some fantastic people, and I am deeply grateful for your gift to the Earth.

Together, we are turning things around!

Thanks for being part of it,

Terra Linda