Springtime

“Springtime is the land awakening.  The March winds are the morning yawn” Lewis Grizzard.

Ahhh March, it’s a month of highs and lows for me!  Of course, I have now had the first flowers of the year and I must say, this has been a banger year for Crocuses! But despite this, March is still a rather bleak (very soggy for us) month and my patience for spring is truly waning!

As I look at my garden with ever increasing impatience, I take time now to have one last good long look at the garden in its bare bones, as this is my last chance to really assess what stays, what goes, what I need/want this year.  This somewhat blank canvas is also perfect for mulching; I am such a mulch maniac!  

Stopping weeds before they have even started will save me so much time and effort this growing season and my plants will not only thank me for the reduced competition (aka weeds), the mulch will hold in moisture and condition my soil, its a triple win for me. I am extra careful to mulch lightly or not at all in areas where I know I could smother a delicate plant that is yet to emerge, but as long as I keep that in mind, I can still mulch a good 50% of the beds and I save the rest of the mulch to apply around my plants as they emerge.  

Yes, mulching is laborious and a pretty dull task, but an hour or two now will save me many, many hours of weeding this summer.

“The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.”  Stephen R. Covey.