By Geri Williams

The weather is finally warming and after the recent rain, things in our yards are greening up quickly. If you left leaves and plant stalks in your yard over the winter, there were many caterpillars, native bees and other insects hibernating there, but after several consecutive days with temperatures over 55 degrees you can start your clean up. If you have spring bulbs emerging and budding, remove the leaves over them by hand to a pile where the insects can remain until it warms up. If put in an out of the way spot, you could allow the leaves to compost there naturally, providing soil amendments.

Caterpillars are super bundles of nutrition. Almost all birds feed their young caterpillars and insects, according to Doug Tallamy, author of Natures Best Hope. It takes over 7000 caterpillars to raise one nest of chickadees to fledge. Lawns are ecological deserts; they do not provide nutrition for caterpillars and birds. Trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants, especially native plants, are the hosts required by butterflies and moths to feed their caterpillars and needed by most other pollinators and insects. Each year I try to eliminate another area of grass and plant a new garden. I include native perennials, shrubs and other flowers I love. I use many perennials to reduce future gardening work, but include annuals for color; most have long bloom times. Zinnias, marigolds, cosmos, nasturtiums and cleome are easy to grow from seed. You should start them as soon as possible to have good size plants to set out mid-May after the frost-free date.

I mix a couple of inches of compost into any new bed before I plant and top dress exiting beds with 1/2 to 1 inch each spring. Because I have enriched my soil, I usually plant closer than recommended to allow plants to grow together and crowd out weeds. I try to plant so that I have something blooming during the entire growing season. To name a few I enjoy: flowering trees, shrubs and bulbs in the spring, along with native pulmonaria, fringed bleeding heart, evening primrose, celandine poppy and Solomon’s seal; joined by iris, day lilies, cone flowers, daisies, cardinal flowers, rudbeckias, bee balm and dahlias as summer comes on. In the fall there are asters, Autumn Joy sedum, and Montauk daisies.

If you want to start a vegetable garden, you can create a simple to manage one in a raised bed. Last year Don built a new one so I could grow tomatoes in better sun. He nailed together 2×8 inch boards into a 4ft x 8ft frame and laid it right over the grass. I laid large pieces of cardboard in the bottom and newspaper over that. Then I put in an inch or two of leaves, followed by container soil, (not garden soil as this is usually too dense and doesn’t drain well) and some compost. My tomatoes grew well and required very little weeding. I will top the bed with more compost and container soil before planting this spring probably after May 1, when the danger of frost is past.

When you buy nursery plants check the tags to make sure they have not been treated with neonicotinoids, a pesticide that is very toxic to bees and other insects and persists in the plant tissues. You may think you are helping the pollinators, but these plants can be lethal. Also be careful throughout the year when you treat your garden plants. Try not to use any pesticides that include neonics such as acetamiprid, clothianidin, dinotefuran, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam. Try natural, organic treatments such as neem oil, insecticidal soaps, products containing pyrethrin and spinosad for vegetables.

Chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers break down the natural fertility of your soil, requiring you to use more fertilizer to keep your plants growing. It is better to build up your soil with compost, leaf litter, natural fertilizers, and composted animal manure. Use undyed mulch to reduce weeds, retain moisture and replenish nutrients as it breaks down.

You can email me at geri3williams@comcast.net with your gardening questions and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Happy Spring! Happy gardening!