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Spring to action as garden react to warmer weather

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10:32 AM Friday, March 12, 2010

Kathy Baxter is the local owner of Gardens By Kathy. She offers gardening tips to help prepare for spring. She can be reached at gardensbykathy@live.com

This week has been very inspiring. For those of us who did not get away for the winter, this is a breath of warm air. The gardens are responding accordingly.

Out in your landscape you will be seeing several things that are a good idea to identify. If you do not know what you are seeing, e-mail me and I will help.

1. Spring bulbs are coming up slowly depending on where they are in your landscape. The warmer the bed the higher the bulb stems are showing.

2. Take a good look at your shrubs, if there is any snow and ice on them, brush off the extra weight.

3. If you are one that have kept your poinsettias alive since the holidays, keep it up and plant them outside for the summer. They make a wonderful addition to your annuals.

4. Daylillies, mums and blackeyed susans are showing some good green growth right now, once again it is all about the temperature of your beds. If you want to propagate/divide any of your perennials now is the time to get ready, know what you want to split and where you want to plant the newly divided plant. You can begin dividing by next week, let the ground thaw out before digging.

5. Get your tools ready for the season. Clean and organize your tools and chemicals. You can sharpen your hand tools, clean your shovels and find your gloves to get ready for digging in the soil.

Seed and plant catalogs are fun to look at this time of the year. Seeds can be started in your house in a sunny window. Visiting commercial greenhouses is always inspiring, they have started many varieties of annuals from seeds and cuttings and always are ahead of the game of gardening.

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