Author: cathyclary

Starting plants from seed may not be the easiest, or even the most economical, way to supply your garden. It requires investing not only a lot of time, but also money for seeds, potting soil, flats, cell packs, thermometers, those cute little markers, and perhaps heat mats, a cold frame, or small greenhouse. Regardless, the best gardeners come to it in the end. Whether it’s pride in self-sufficiency or the chance to grow varieties you can’t find in garden centers, seeds tie us to the earth like nothing else.

Peas, carrots, radishes, and greens are best direct-sowed in the garden around mid- March. But starting other seeds inside gives a jump of 10 days or longer on early harvest and bloom. Exactly when you sow depends on how long it takes the seedling to become hearty enough for transplanting outside. That occurs for spring crops, like broccoli, around April 15; plants providing a summer harvest, such as tomatoes, can go into the ground after the last frost date, around May 15.

Temperatures are tricky for tender seedlings. You can germinate on top of the fridge for ready bottom heat. (Avoid heat mats unless you’re a pro—they can fry little plants.) You can also start seeds in front of a sunny window or inside a greenhouse or cold frame, to protect the young plants from freezing, drying out, and extreme temperature changes. If you cover your flats with plastic wrap, lift it every few days and shake down the water droplets when checking the moisture of your growing medium; with a greenhouse or cold frame, open vents on sunny days to avoid burning.

Seeds to start indoors: Common vegetables and uncommon flowers

Seed                                        Sow            Grow temp.    Days to germinate

Hollyhock                                 Mar. 1          60F                       14-21

Leeks                                         Mar. 1          50-70F                 5-7

Marigold “Little Gem”           Mar. 15        75-80F                 4-7

Nicotiana “Fragrant Cloud” Mar. 15         75F                       7-21

Peppers                                    Mar. 15         75-85F                 5+

Zinnia “Benary’s  Giant”      Mar. 15          70F                       7

Broccoli                                   Mar. 18          77F                       5-10

Cleome “Helen Campbell”  Mar. 18          60-80F                10-21

Tomatoes                                Mar. 30         70-80F                 5-10

Cucumbers                             Apr. 15           70F                       5+

References: Southern Seed Exposure, Johnny’s Seeds, Thompson & Morgan

Back in the ’80s, I ran a landscape crew at Albemarle Farm and its later incarnation as John Kluge’s Morven Farm. I kept a well-thumbed, constantly annotated 3×5 spiral notebook with a card for each month’s tasks for the areas we maintained: ornamental displays of shrubs, perennials and annuals; creekside buffers; an allee of willow oaks, a grove of redbuds, magnolia collections; a small nursery with a couple of greenhouses; and a handful of tenant houses.

The page for August reads:

• Herbicide ailanthus (tree of heaven).

• Check for sawfly larvae on conifers and oak caterpillars through September.

• Seed and straw bare areas.

• Spray hemlock with oil for spider mites when goldenrod begins to bloom.

• Spray barberry looper with a brand-name chemical I’ll not repeat here.

• Spray herbicide and pre-emergent on gravel driveways.

My priorities have changed a lot since then. I certainly don’t spray herbicides on driveways anymore and I don’t have to worry about barberry looper, hemlock spider mites or sawfly larvae on the mugo pines because I’m no longer trying to maintain marginal varieties in an inhospitable climate.

It’s too hot and humid for hemlocks to thrive here; barberries cold-shoulder native pollinators, catch winter trash in their thorny bare twigs and invade woodland edges; mugo pines-—don’t get me started. And, although I did use oils and soaps, I was way too much of a nozzle-head when it came to chemical sprays. I don’t do that anymore, either.

Bookended with an earlier stint at Monticello and subsequent adventure as head gardener at Albemarle House at the turn of the century (before Donald Trump bought it), I became irretrievably mired in the elite tradition of plantation/estate gardening, with its intricate Faulknerian histories, attendant staff, budgets, inventories and scheduling.

It spoiled me forever for working in my own garden (though I did my time hoeing the Monticello vegetable beds from east to west, west to east and back again). But what I really want is to walk around and inspect things, make lists and tell other people what to do. Perhaps a little light work in the late afternoon, as Thomas Jefferson was inclined.

Although it ruined my character, estate gardening did expose me to an eccentric array of greenhouses and potting sheds, beginning with the now-defunct seed-sorting shed at Monticello and the tiny 1950s structure tacked on the back of the office at old Morven during Whitney and Anne Stone’s time there. The Kluge era saw the addition of an orchid house (now used for kitchen garden starts) and, at Morven Farms (now part of the Trump empire), two production greenhouses and a conservatory with small waterfalls where I used to fight whitefly and scale.

The original estate of Morven lives on under its latest metamorphosis as a bequest to the University of Virginia, hosting thousands of locals, students and international visitors who enjoy the classic perennial beds and renowned Japanese garden.

John Kluge’s ex-wife Patricia’s thatched roof potting shed on the hill above Albemarle House was the pinnacle of a dream garden. The simple plastered interior with floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with Italian clay pots and a casement window above the sink looking out onto yet more thatched buildings was like a Beatrix Potter illustration.

What I have learned through my exposure to all this special real estate is that the most important garden is the one inside your mind, implemented in the ground as best you can with the resources at hand. However impractical your dreams and whatever the size of your plot or budget, all you really need for a properly run estate is decent soil, running water, a good crew and the right frame of mind.

Each season has its sounds and smells. In the quiet of late winter stinky skunk cabbage entices winged insects hungry for carrion. Spring brings birdsong and sweeter breezes although nature continues the rotting meat theme with the lurid  purple hue of paw-paw flowers. As we approach the equinox of June 21, the legendary longest day when everywhere day and night are the same length, the fragrant heady buzz of summer reigns supreme.

The peepers’ song (our little native chorus frogs) was the opening act for bees, butterflies, moths, wasps and flies that fill the air with their whirrings. From now until the first killing frost, rich odors and bright flowers with protruding stamens and landing pads of petals lure myriad flying things to pollinate vegetables, fruits, trees, shrubs and each other. In turn they provide food for toads, turtles and birds on up the food chain. Cicadas and crickets in late August and the tang of nasturtiums will foretell summer’s end.

So what does this have to do with city gardeners or even suburban and country folk who are just trying to keep everything in check and have something pretty to look at or eat? Summer’s prime directives are to feed the hungry (fertilize roses, tomatoes, annuals), water the thirsty (transplants, containers, drought-stressed shrubs and trees) and try to keep weeds from taking over (mulch with newspaper, cardboard, wood chips, and compost).

Attracting pollinators and keeping water on your property are two of the most important things you can do to achieve the first two of these ends (weeds can become a losing battle at any time). Unless you’re going to get out there with a cotton swab, all those tomatoes and cucumbers and squash, not to mention the fruit trees, depend on bees and flies and wasps, even bats, to move pollen from one plant to another. Plant flowers, give shelter, and they will come. Spray pesticides and you will kill them. A variety of native flowers like black-eyed Susan, coneflower, beebalm, phlox and butterfly weed is best, but even the much-derided Asian butterfly bush has abundant nectar and gives a twiggy home.

When you capture runoff with rain barrels, rain gardens and permeable surfaces (avoid asphalt and concrete and look to pavers or stones set in soil or sand), it’s a win-win for your landscape and the Chesapeake Bay, which does not need any more yard waste. Barrels and rooftop catchment store water for outdoor use.

Rain gardens are swaths of grasses, shrubs and perennials in low spots that absorb runoff from streets, parking areas and roofs, i.e. impermeable surfaces. Check out the Virginia Conservation Assistance Program at Thomas Jefferson Soil & Water Conservation District for cost-share programs. Rain gardens hold and filter excess water while providing space for flowering shrubs and perennials to feed the insect world. They are not neat and tidy and have a meadowish look. They generally get cut down once a year in early spring and are not heavy feeders.

The best of public plantings teach us ways to improve our landscapes. Our city is full of rain gardens when you start looking for them. From the parking lot at Region Ten on Preston Avenue to the ones at Boar’s Head by the pond and at the bottom of the County Office Building on McIntire Road, you can study efforts to hold and clean stormwater instead of dumping it in the bay.

Our shining jewel is the University of Virginia’s Dell, which daylighted part of Meadow Creek and tamed its flow into a pond (with resident egret). Plantings along its run up to the old cemeteries reflect Virginia’s different ecological regions, from waterside to foothills. A meandering path with excellent signage leads through river birch, switch grass, bayberry, fringetree, Joe Pye weed, cardinal flower, sweet fern and more. Walk right in and immerse yourself in the songs and smells of summer.

My circle of acquaintances happily includes many who make their lives in horticulture. Their answers to my idle query, “What is your favorite tool?”  ranged from humorous—a professional gardener, 5-gallon bucket and a radio—to the obscure, among them the intriguing swan hoe, an ingenious asparagus knife with scuffle attachment and a number of beloved Japanese tools such as the Hori Hori soil knife and the Hida long-handled hedge shear.

A question like that is like asking a parent to pick a favorite child. Practicality jostles with sentiment and the answer often depends on what stage of life you’re in. I lost one of my favorite tools in the asparagus patch last summer, a soil knife with a handle crafted from an old University of Virginia boxwood. Fit my hand just fine. I was digging the deep-rooted dandelion and somehow came out of the patch without it. I could never deface such a work of art with a spray of orange paint, but bright handles are a help. Plus a bucket to throw things in instead of on the ground. I’ve never been one to hang things on my pants or belt, sagging weight around the middle being a problem as it is.

People who do a lot of weeding have their preferences. Vegetable gardeners love a variety of hoes—those that scuffle, those that chop, held as a hand tool or a long-handled implement. I gave all that up long ago, though I did my time tending the roundabout and vegetable garden at Monticello and perennial beds at Morven, but I find what I really like to do now at my own place is cut back and prune. Consequently, my most frequent companions are my Felco folding saw and hand pruners stuffed in the back pockets of my jeans. I also like a long-handled narrow-bladed ditch or poaching spade that pops out a small plant or tenacious weed in a jiffy.

Only an inveterate weeder who spends a lot of time on her knees and has a tendency toward Zen needs a collection of hand cultivators: asparagus knives (like a screwdriver with a fork at the end) and various little plows or claws that fit into the fingers for scuffing along the soil surface among new plants to dislodge tiny weeds. I used to use a Clawdia that looks just like it sounds and put blisters on my palm after a good session.

The soil knife vs. trowel debate is moot. If you do hand cultivation, you need both. The classic U shape trowel (I prefer a deeper blade over the stubby ones) gives a good scooping action especially in well-prepared soil; the pointed dagger design of the soil knife is best for fierce digging in inhospitable ground.

If you’re going to start or refurbish a tool collection this spring, have a dedicated space. Whether a potting shed, garage, basement, pantry or mudroom, find somewhere out of the elements—running water and sink a plus. Aspire to keep tools clean and blades sharp. Learn to do it yourself or use a sharpening service at a local hardware store.

Brush clods from dirty shovel blades and plunge several times into a bucket of oil and sand, wipe with a dry rag (bar rags are perfect) and put each back in its place. If you have room, a wall for hanging is ideal. You can see and reach everything at once. Have linseed oil (for wooden handles), mineral spirits (for cleaning pine sap, etc.) and WD-40 on hand. Visit local tool departments like Southern States, Martin Hardware and Fifth Season Gardening, as well as look into A. M. Leonard online. Start small and buy quality.

Around March 21 spring will turn our faces to the sun with new smells to dispel the empty cold of winter and we will feel a visceral desire to get moving. Everything wakes up. Even the tool room.

 

The basics

Hand clippers

Cut everything under an inch. Bypass scissor-type like Felco is the standard. Always carry one when you walk through the garden.

Folding saw

Branches too large for hand clippers.

Loppers

Larger branches, good for reaching into tangles.

Hand claw, potato hook

Fine weeding and breaking up bare soil in newly planted beds; also useful for fluffing up old matted mulch

Hoe

Break up soil and uproot larger weeds in the vegetable garden

Spade/shovel

You’re always going to have to dig something.

Digging fork

For the serious gardener

Leaf rake

Clean up small debris and keep things tidy

Heavy tined “dirt” or “steel” rake

Smoothing seed beds for vegetable gardens or lawn renovation

Tarp

Haul debris, cover things from rain

What does it mean for a garden to have “good bones”? Like a beautiful woman or a handsome man, it’s what remains when the bloom is gone. Some believe good bones reveal character, or perhaps it’s just a matter of chance. We know it when we see it, however, in gardens as well as faces.

Although age is the ultimate patina to good design, even a brand new landscape can put on a venerable air with a well-considered composition and bold plantings. With winter coming on and Shakespeare’s “old December’s bareness everywhere!,” it’s a good time to assess the landscape and contemplate foundation work. New projects beckon and gardens we’ve lived with so long we don’t see them anymore can be reimagined.

Good bones are longlasting. We are not talking about the bright colors and immediate satisfaction of varied bedding plants, which have their place. Mums, pansies, lantana, salvias and the rest are ephemeral deckings of the seasons—frippery which we alter according to our whims, the current fashion and time of year.

Nor are we talking about moving plants around like pieces of furniture the way we play with our perennial collections, mixed borders and containers. Every garden needs space for pet plants, gifts and crazy impulse buys, but enduring structure requires features that stay put: specimen trees or shrubs that anchor views and sitting places, masses of evergreen and deciduous textures that lead the eye, pathways trodden by generations of feet and drifts of bulbs that come back year after year.

Trees as individuals and in little copses make enduring spaces as does shrubbery skirted with bulbs and groundcovers. Repetition of lines—bed edges, walkways, patios, decking—and contrasts of texture, size and color help knit everything together. Oh, and while you’re keeping all this in mind, try to keep it simple.

Hardscape—pergolas, fences, walls, walkways, benches, tables, artwork—is as much a part of the outdoors as plants (and some of it actually can be moved around like furniture). But before we begin arranging built surfaces, objects and plants, we need an axis to hang it on.

The axis of a garden is the skeleton that holds those good bones together and sets apart memorable gardens from amateur hodgepodge. It connects the landscape with the house and the way people walk from all the doors that lead in and out. Walk around this winter and think about it. Envision a tree trunk with spreading branches and twigs that embrace the grounds. Or, if you’re a more formal sort, a cross or star.

If you have an overgrown holly, shaggy crapemyrtle or neglected Japanese maple that could shine as a focal point, the dormant season is the time to let out your inner Rodin and sculpt away deadwood, crossing limbs and wild hairs. Always make a sharp cut back to a juncture with a larger branch. Do not leave stubs. Don’t cut into old wood on junipers as they will not bud out, but hollies can be cut hard in mid-February to rejuvenate, shape or reduce in size.

Resist getting carried away with winter clean-up and mistakenly cutting back spring-flowering shrubs like viburnums, spireas and azaleas, which carry their buds over winter. Wait until right after bloom next year to prune them. Summer-flowering shrubs like butterfly bush, Russian sage and Pee Gee (Snowball type) hydrangeas bloom on new wood and can be cut back from one-third to two-thirds from now through March.

As we grow with our gardens year after year, tweaking a bit here and ripping everything out over there, in the end beauty remains in the eye of the beholder. When we look at our gardens, we are looking back at ourselves. So tilt that chin out, stand up straight and resolve to get in shape for 2018.

Plants for good bones

American holly*

Boxwood

Bulbs

Crapemyrtle

Cryptomeria

Dogwood*

Fern* (some)

Inkberry*

Japanese maple

Japanese silverbell

Redbud*

Witch hazel* (some)

*Native

Winter tasks

• Clean up; make leaf piles to decompose over winter; start compost piles with garden debris.
• Deer protection (wire cages around newly planted small trees).
• Edging (use sharp spade to dig slanted edges to define beds).
• Dormant pruning (shape, limb up, cut out double leaders from deciduous trees).
• Amendment and mulch (lime for lawns after soil test; compost, rotted leaves spread on beds; tend compost piles).
• Clean, organize and order new tools.

The weeping willow and sourwood, gifts for our wedding, died early on. The Austrian pine marking the birth of our grandson, Sean, (replacing the original Japanese paperbark pine accidentally mowed down) seems to be succumbing to some kind of tip die-back 16 years later, and ever since I heard about the depredations of the ambrosia beetle, I’ve been worried about our iconic garden beech, which sports a suspicious early-browning swath through its canopy.

Then there’s the couple who nurse a sickly hybrid bestowed in memory of a beloved relative and the lady who can’t stand the mature habit of the vigorous trident maple she planted for a long-ago wedding anniversary. Symbolism and sentiment stay our hands. In the face of such pitfalls, why plant a memorial tree at all?

Because sometimes we just can’t help it. Dedicating a tree to a special person or event is an age-old human rite. Trees have futures and meanings fraught with peril. Just like us, they are blessed and cursed. They grow old majestically or die too soon from accident or disease, sometimes murder. They suffer misfortune, witness history, receive accolades, nurture life and cause unintended harm. Planting a tree is always an act of hope.

Most memorial trees are in our yards, some in cemeteries, others in public spaces. Decisions can be very personal, for weddings, births and deaths, or out of our hands altogether in the case of happenstance. Some trees are selected as specimens for neighborhood associations or parks to commemorate a public event or benefactor. If you’re tasked with selecting or caring for a such a tree, what should you keep in mind?

Ultimate size, width as well as height, is often the most surprising aspect of trees and the biggest threat to their longevity. Make sure a newly planted tree is muddied in and gets an inch of water every week the ground is not frozen for at least the first couple of years; pay extra attention during hot dry spells. In the country, protection from deer rubbing is crucial.

Dig the planting hole two to three times wider than the root ball and place it at soil level or a bit higher, exposing the natural flare of the trunk. If it looks like a telephone pole, it’s too deep. Healthy tree roots will quickly outgrow the original hole, so don’t amend so much that you radically change the texture and drainage from the surrounding soil. A few shovelfuls of good compost is usually sufficient.

Mulch with organic shredded hardwood, pine bark, leaf compost, pine tags or the like, no more than three inches and don’t build a volcano! Often this structure is intended to hold water, but as it deepens with repeated mindless mulching, it ends up shedding water and starving the soil of oxygen. Keep mulch flat and a few inches away from the base of the trunk. Staking is usually not necessary unless you have an unusually top-heavy tree, and can cause harm when not removed within a year by keeping the tree too stiff to develop natural wind resistance and cutting into its bark.

Please don’t just throw down a ceremonial shovel and walk away from a photo op if you’re involved in planting a public tree. Make sure there is specific responsibility (and funding!) for care. Track down the department and individual at the relevant agency (parks and recreation, campus landscaping, etc.) and confirm that the new tree is on a care schedule. Walk by occasionally and keep an eye on it. Have another visible dedication in addition to the tree. A bench with a plaque is ideal, perhaps an engraved stone in the turf. Let aftercomers know the meaning of the tree.

Our marriage has survived the demise of our wedding trees and seen the planting of many more. Perhaps we’ll make a bonfire of Sean’s pine for his senior prom. In the meantime, my birthday beech in the east meadow is coming on 18 years now and I’m beginning to think about what we’ll plant for Sean’s graduation.

Memorial tree suggestions

American holly, red and yellow berried (40-50′ x 18-40′)*

Beech: European (50-60′ x 35-40′); Pendula (weeping); Copper beech, Native American beech*

Dogwood, white and pink (20-30′ x 20-30′)*

Japanese maple, Acer palmatum, dwarf weeping (10-15′), standard (15-20′), green or burgundy

Southern magnolia (60-80′ x 30-50′) or
Little Gem (20′)*

Star magnolia, M. stellata (15-20′ x 10-15′)

White oak (50-80′)*

*Natives

Fall check list

• Get a soil test and best management practices from the Virginia Healthy Lawns program through Piedmont Master Gardeners (albemarle vcehelpdesk@gmail.com).
• Water woody plants two years and younger well into winter.
• Put up wire cages around small caliper trees to protect from deer.
• Sow fall greens to follow summer veggies.
• Plant cover crops like rye or clover in empty vegetable beds.
• Plant bulbs (brentandbeckysbulbs.com, vanengelen.com, local garden centers).

The lure of the long-blooming, low-maintenance garden is perennial in the gardener’s heart. After the rush of early spring has subsided and we are no longer smothered in an eruption of dogwoods, azaleas, peonies, iris and daffodils, thoughts inevitably turn to riding that wave of flowers on to first frost. But we don’t want to have to work too hard for it.

Paving everything in asphalt, bluestone, artificial turf or mulch is the ultimate in low-maintenance, yet we yearn for the variety and color of living plants. The tried and true mixed border—combining perennials and shrubs with room for seasonal bedding plants and bulbs—remains the best strategy for abundant color through the year in the most efficient fashion, though it does involve some planning and planting. If you want to avoid trouble in the long run, take a little in the beginning to find the right plants for the labor-saving garden.

Some, like black-eyed-Susan, butterfly bush, garden phlox, salvia, veronica and zinnia require regular deadheading to continue producing blooms. If you like fresh flowers for the house, they can serve double duty for indoor arrangements as well as outside display and you can wander about the garden like Vita Sackville-West with her secateurs and wooden basket. Plant in separate cutting beds along with vegetables and culinary herbs or work them into mixed borders.

If you really don’t want to have to fuss for your flowers, avoid the deadheaders and concentrate on longlasting color for the landscape, like abelia, crape myrtle, hydrangea, Russian sage and vitex. Leadwort or dwarf plumbago (Ceratostigma plumbaganoides) is a favorite, spreading groundcover with bright blue flowers in late summer and burgundy-splashed leaves through fall—it only needs a good rake out each spring. Green and white is a cool solution to low-care effective borders: Goat’s beard (Aruncus diocus), Astilbe, black kohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa), ferns and hostas give a long-lived perennial structure that make a background for annuals like cleome and nicotiana in a white night garden near a patio, walk or porch swing.

For consistent blooms with minimal care, the Knock-Out Rose series is at the top of the list. Though they would certainly be refused admittance to a nativist’s pollenator garden filled with indigenous plants like Virginia Sweetspire (Itea virginica) or false indigo (Baptisia australis), Knock-Outs do provide nutritious bright red hips in winter and shelter for birds and small animals. After years of development they fulfill their promise of disease and insect-resistance which means they do not rely on spray regimes and are a better choice on that front than disease-prone hybrid roses. The original strong red, which has been variously described as “candy apple,” “cherry” and “hot pink” has been joined mercifully with a variety of white, creamy yellow (some fragrant) and pink, which are best not mingled.

Left unpruned, they reach 4-6′ all around, pushing out blooms all summer long, whether deadheaded or not. Cutting back one-third in early spring before new growth will maintain their size, though this is not necessary if they have proper space. At minimum, dead wood should be cut out yearly. For variety, skirt them with crocus, silver-blue catmint or a hardy pinkish geranium like Biokovo with its scarlet fall foliage.

Annual begonias, blue fan flower (Scaevola), lantana and petunias make bright baskets in hot sunny spots, but beware of containers if you’re trying to cut maintenance. During the inescapable droughts of late Virginia summers they require regular and copious amounts of water and seasonal care—cleaning, changing potting soil, drainage, winterizing, hauling in, hauling out, etc.

Flowers make a garden. They embower the universal image of the ideal retreat. Say what we will for foliar texture, good bones and winter structure, the seduction of summer is the most lasting bloom of all.

Your summer plant guide

Deadheaders/cutting

Butterfly bush, black-eyed-Susan, coneflower, garden phlox, salvia, scabiosa, veronica, yarrow, zinnia

Long blooms

Shrubs: Abelia, buddleia, dwarf crape myrtle, hydrangea, roses, spirea, vitex

Perennials: Astilbe, black kohosh, goat’s beard, dwarf plumbago, perovskia, verbena

Annuals: Begonia, fan flower, globe amaranth, lantana, petunia

June checklist

• Set sundial at noon on June 15 so the shadow falls directly on XII.
• Prune azaleas and other spring-flowering shrubs for size and shape by end of June; cut back to outer branch and open up the middle.
• Transplant daffodils and other bulbs with a garden fork to avoid cuts. Replant immediately and water well once or store dry for fall planting.
• Feed flowering perennials and annuals twice a month with compost tea, liquid seaweed or other organic fertilizer.

When it burst upon the scene five years ago, boxwood blight put a big scare into Virginia nurseries and all who love the iconic shrub, though perhaps some who scorn it for its historical associations and acrid smell would just as soon see the genus in its grave. Much like a sci-fi movie, sticky spores attach to anything that’s been in contact with infected plants (pruners, shoes, gloves, old leaves) and pathogens live in the soil for five to six years. The afflicted drop their leaves, decline and die. Labeled a “devastating disease” by the Virginia Cooperative Extension, it wreaked havoc among old English and American varieties before nurseries learned to control it with strict hygiene and reliance on resistant varieties.

Robert Saunders, who grows boxwoods with his brothers just south of Lovingston, says things have settled down since the blight was discovered in 2011. He sees it now as manageable, but “the days of planting large numbers of English boxwood are over.” So, if you have some ancient specimens on grounds—soft fluffy English or burly dark American—now’s the time to protect them. Never prune boxwood in wet weather or subject them to overhead irrigation.

Unlike English and American (Buxus sempervirens), littleleaf boxwood (B. microphylla) produces cultivars apparently highly resistant to the fungus. Green Beauty, Wintergreen and Winter Gem are among the most highly ranked for resistance.

The gist is, if you have extensive old boxwood plantings, do not let people care for them who have tramped through lots of other peoples’ boxwoods until they tell you exactly what precautions they are taking (sterilizing tools, replacing coverings on shoes, etc.). It’s in everybody’s interest to do this.

In the meantime, keep your boxwoods well-groomed, with old twigs and debris cleaned out from the center of plants and do not overmulch. Air circulation and keeping infection out of the area are key. If you want to opt out of the whole drama altogether, consider inkberry and hollies for your deer-resistant evergreen needs.

Boxwood cares aside, spring is upon us, with winter jasmine and snowdrops having fully flowered at the end of January. Garden centers will be ready, with most opening March 1. Our last frost date still hovers around mid-May, so be careful setting out tender annuals unless you’re able to toss frost cloth or sheets over them on the frigid nights we’re bound to get at least through the end of March.

Cool season annuals like pansies, violas and sweet William are good choices for early color until the soil heats up. Buy tomatoes as soon as they go on sale to get a wide selection of varieties, but keep them potted so you can whisk them inside if needed before planting them when the earth has thoroughly warmed in May.

Now is the time to fertilize hollies, azaleas and dogwoods with an acidic product like Holly Tone. Pull back existing mulch, scatter fertilizer and lightly scratch in with a garden claw or rake before replacing the mulch. Boxwoods, however, need very little fertilizer and prefer a slightly alkaline soil, so keep Holly Tone away from them.

Resist the temptation to recarpet all beds with a nice thick layer of fresh shredded hardwood. If you’ve already got 2-3″, rake it up a bit to break the crust and wait until fall to add more. Too much mulch smothers plants and roots, sheds water and invites voles.

Always something to worry about in the garden. Love them or leave them, let us take a lesson in resilience from the boxwoods and welcome spring, ready to deal with whatever challenges nature has in store.

Spring checklist

• Drop off lawnmower blades, hand pruners and other cutting implements at Martin Hardware for sharpening.
• Check oil and gas for mowers.
• Clean and oil hand tools. Sharpen shovel and spade blades with a bastard file.
• Prune roses and fertilize with compost and well-rotted manure.
• Fertilize perennials with compost or organic slow-release 5-10-5 product.
• Top-dress bare spots in the lawn with compost before seeding and strawing.
• Start indoor seeds—tomatoes, cleomes, zinnias—for setting out in mid-May.
• Sow cool-weather greens —arugula, cilantro, kale, lettuce, mesclun—outdoors.