Carrying On

Our worlds are getting smaller with COVID-19.  Working from home, avoiding stores, and limiting social contact is just strange.  But there is one thing in which we can indulge:  gardening.  Most often a stay-at-home endeavor, gardening doesn’t require travel, burns nervous energy, and can often be performed solo, especially if no-one else in your house has a green thumb or likes to get their hands dirty.

So what can we do in March?  First and foremost at my place is raking leaves.  The woods behind our house supply leaves in quantity, and although I spent last autumn cleaning up, winter winds piled shoals of brown leaves along the house, behind the garage, and against the raised beds.  If Saturday is dry, I might fire up the leaf shredder and chop them into mulch, getting a jump-start on the Herculean task of mulching all the gardens by May.  With the noise and dust involved, everyone will keep their social distance.

Pruning could also be tackled.  I really enjoy pruning dormant trees and shrubs, since I can easily identify crossing, damaged and diseased wood for removal.  It is a great time to study the form of each plant, and decide how pruning could be used to improve a shape or rein-in exuberant growth.  The warm-ish weather has buds swelling on some plants, so I’ll only prune those still asleep, and avoid those which tend to “bleed” in the spring, including maples and birches.  A neighbor with overgrown rhododendrons asked for advice, and I told her to prune them hard, meaning it is okay to cut back into old wood as far as necessary.  We’re able to do this because rhododendrons can grow new branches from anywhere along their stems.  Not all woody plants have this ability, however, and if you try this with a juniper, you’ll end up with a butchered bush which never re-grows.  Pruning a rhododendron hard now also means no spring flowers, but if your sawing arm is itching for action, it might be worth the sacrifice.

COVID-19 gives us one possible pause in pruning, though.  Plan on what you are going to do with that mountain of trimmings which vigorous pruning will generate.  I would normally load up my little black truck and haul them to our town’s brush pile, but that’s closed right now.  If you have curbside pick-up of yard waste, that may be suspended, too.  Check with your municipality before relying on their normal services, as those folks are stretched thin at the moment.  I have the luxury of having my own mini brush-pile, which I clean up periodically, but not everyone has space enough for that.

The compost pile is also calling my name.  I’ve got a lovely mound of fine, rich “black gold” sitting in the bin, waiting to be spread on the raised beds and then forked in.  Compost is magical stuff, making clay soils drain better and sandy soils hold more water, so digging compost might keep my mind off Corona.