Beware This Type of Gardening

Today it reached 70+ degrees in OKC…So BEWARE THIS TYPE OF GARDENING!! You know what I mean… 𝗃𝗎𝗆𝗉 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗀𝗎𝗇 𝗀𝖺𝗋𝖽𝖾𝗇𝗂𝗇𝗀⇰⇰‼️… when you are so seduced by the warm temperatures that you are tricked into thinking it’s spring and you start doing spring and late winter chores. But stop and think! We have all of February to make it through. Here’s a list of dont’s and do’s that you can be working on in this fabulous faux spring weather.
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well finally we are able to get out in
the garden and it is an absolutely
glorious day I think it’s going to get
up close to 70 today and it kind of is
what prompted the topic uh on this
Wednesday walk about
beware this type of gardening and what
kind of gardening is that it is jump the
gun gardening because it is faux Spring
right now and it feels as if we can just
just get out there and start cleaning up
and start planting and start being very
very aggressive in trying to beautify
our really decrepit tattered cold Brown
Gardens I know I am so ready to do that
but we’re going to talk today about some
things that I definitely put in the
category of jump the gun gardening don’t
do those things but I will try to give
you a coraly of something that you can
do so Stuart what do you say
okay now you may recall right before we
had that Arctic blast come through that
I was admonishing everyone to really
mulch things very very well using uh you
know different kinds of mulch but in my
case I would just use lots of leaf
litter so I literally blew all of the
brown leaves that were in the vicinity
on top of things like my hydrangeas some
of my perennials the agapanthus because
I really wanted it to protect the root
ball not only to prevent kind of frost
heave of my perennials where they
literally heave and then um are exposed
out of the soil in the freezing thawing
process but also because it just got so
so cold that I wanted to protect the
root balls of the perennials of the
hydrangeas of even my boxwood from those
Zer degree temps and to a certain extent
even the top growth now it is right now
the last day of of January and we still
have all of February ahead temperatures
to the contrary it feels just like
spring so would I really like to come
through here and hand rake or delicately
rake all of the leaves off of these
perennials and cut these perennials back
yes I would am I going to do that no I
am not because we’ve got all of February
ahead sometimes February here in
Oklahoma is even colder than January and
I don’t want to clean them up only to
have them succumb at the last minute to
a hard freeze but what can I do well
let’s go down
here but what I can do to start
beautifying things and making my garden
look a little bit more kemped number one
I can pull out any dead plants like
these sad sad uh Touch of gold Hol and
I’ve pulled them out of the urns up
front I’m going to discard them and then
since this all of this Leaf litter is
really not protecting anything all it’s
done is just accumulate here at the
bottom of the steps I am going to start
cleaning up this with these
wonderful little H I know where were
they with these wonderful little hand
RS and obviously I I know obviously I
don’t have a big enough bin to do this
but these are all things that I can
start cleaning up and I can transport
some of these to my compost pile sadly
all of them will not fit but I will have
some help later the guys will come in
they will help me clean this up and then
they will take them to a larger compost
pile over at Kaus so the other reason
that I want to clean these up is not
only because they really don’t look very
attractive but also because when we are
coming down the stairs I can’t see the
bottom step and that is really look see
there’s another step down there so while
I don’t want to clean up all of this
Leaf
litter off of plants that are in the
ground where I am using them for
insulation
I do want to clean them up anywhere
where they have collected it is
unsightly and more importantly that it’s
treacherous another type of jump the gun
gardening is something that is really
typically not too much of a problem here
in Oklahoma because we tend to go be on
the dry side our Gardens tend to be on
the dry side but in many many areas you
really need to wait till the soil dries
out because if you work it when it’s too
wet you can ruin the tilth of the soil
so you’re not going to want to be doing
any planting until that soil is dry
enough to work and what do I mean by
that by ruining the til well here my
soil tends to be like heavy clay so if I
work it when it’s too wet and actually
right now for me it’s not too bad but if
you work it when it’s too wet and it’s
heavy clay then what that does is it
just makes those clay clumps really just
solidify and it ruins the tilth of the
soil because what you really want is
that chocolate cake Frable soil so do
not jump the gun and start digging in
your dirt to plant trees which you can
do right now or certain Evergreens which
you can do right now uh but only if your
soil is dry enough so what can you do
well when your soil is dried out enough
you can plant as I said not only trees
it’s a great time to plant trees it’s a
great time to plant certain Evergreens
but you can also plant as I am doing
some of the spent forced bulbs that you
have been enjoying inside your home so I
got a bunch of Hy Asin these were blue I
also have some white ones I probably
showed you where I had them displayed in
the cottage now unlike tulips uh paper
white narcissist those are kind of
oneshot Wonders and once they’re done
the bulbs just need to be composted if
they’ve been forced but that is not the
case with hin or mcari uh miniature
daffodils those kinds of things I do
save the bulbs and I can go ahead and
plant them in the ground in this area
which is now going to be my minor bulb
Garden you may remember that I had one
at the other house it was underneath one
of my redbud trees in the backyard but
here is where I will plant drifts of
these
hents in my my um signature colors in
this white and in this blue and I’ll
plant them in drifts now will they bloom
again this year no this is an investment
in the future but it’s also an
investment in saving money because I’ve
already paid for these bulbs once and I
don’t want to pay for them again so once
the soil is really dried out enough and
I can ensure that I’ve got good drainage
I can come in here and I can plant these
bolts if you have a strictly hot season
I.E mostly in Oklahoma a Bermuda or a
zoa lawn you do not want to fertilize
right now you want to wait until the
first hint of green starts to show
itself and that’s not going to happen
for two to 3 months what you can do is
you can aate it if you need to and if
you have already
overseed like with a Ry grass like I
have done over my Bermuda then you can
oh let’s just say conservative
conservatively fertilized that’s hard to
say so if this were strictly Bermuda I
would not do anything but since I’ve got
it overseed with a perennial rye grass
you can’t tell now because it’s so it’s
been so cold that even the ride grass
has browned but I want this Ry grass to
really green up and be beautiful and
Lush once the Tulip show starts so
around the 15th of February to the 1st
of March I’m going to apply a light
layer of Morganite which is an organic
fertilizer I’m going to just apply it to
these areas that are over seated the
areas that are between the sidewalk and
the street both here in front of the
cottage and along the side that has not
been overseed so I’m not going to touch
this lawn again if I felt like the soil
was really really compacted I could come
through and I could aate it but I don’t
think I need to do that because we did
that last spring so that’s the
difference do I or don’t I fertilize
if it’s a hot seasoned grass no if
you’ve got a cool seasoned grass yet yes
but I would hold off till about February
15th or the 1st of March and again
that’s Milorganite I get it here at Ace
Hardware you can sometimes find it at
Home Depot and yes it is
organic now as much as I would like to
start pruning and shearing on my boxwood
to start transforming these shrubs into
beautiful rounded spheres I am not going
to do that now now why even though when
I look it up on I think it’s the OSU
Extension website here in Oklahoma City
they say you can start pruning boxwood
and Evergreens but I I don’t think so
and here’s why my garden journal tells
me not to when whenever I have pruned it
prematurely we will inevitably have a
hard frog
and then any new growth that comes out
as a result of pruning let me back up a
little bit because pruning forces New
Growth okay
today you know the garden thinks oh my
goodness it’s spring so if I pruned this
back now and then we have two weeks of
these above average temperatures it’s
going to start putting out New Growth
then the temperatures are going to
plummet and any new growth that comes
out is not going to be tempered to the
cold so I’m not going to do that now
when am I going to do it I’m going to do
it once I start seeing a new flush of
growth and for me that’s going to be
sometime in March I’m especially going
to be cautious because I face South it
gets lots of sun lots of warmth and as
soon as I would prune it prune it
especially if we got some rain it would
want to start sending out new baby leav
leaves if this were on the north side of
the house it wasn’t getting a lot of sun
it would stay dormant far more easily
then I might consider it but in my case
it’s no thy Garden so beware of pruning
any kind of boxwood uous things like
that right now you might be able to do
it safely but we never know what Mother
Nature has in store but something that I
am going to do
is I am going to take just a few
Cuts I well I’m not sure this is that
Bambina pineapple guava which I thought
had really endured it endured the first
cold wave but I don’t think it h it
could handle that ice storm we had now I
am not in case it’s alive I am not going
to do any kind of radical pruning on
this nor am I going to complet
completely rip it out what I am going to
do is do a sample cut and I’m going to
do a sample cut oh I could do it just
about everywhere I’m going to be looking
for
green and you know what there might be
it’s hard to tell there might be a
little bit of green so I’m not going to
prematurely cut this back or rip it out
I’m going to be patient I’m going to
wait and see the other thing is if this
one cut does start putting out New
Growth then I’ll know oh it’s not
dead and it will tell me that there is
still viability to this plant so that is
what I am not going to do and I am
definitely not going to remove the plant
in its totality until I know it is
really sincerely dead now what am I
going to take out will come over
here now a common sense uh thing that I
think we probably all do when we’re so
anxious to get out in the garden and we
don’t want to cause any damage we can do
chores like taking inventory of our
garden tools getting them sharpened
locating them if we’re not sure where
they are and maybe even adding to our
tool inventory and in my tool inventory
things that I find indispensable are
different kinds of weeders for different
kinds of weeds and I thoroughly enjoy
weeding this time of year because the
soil is moist it’s easy to extricate
them and I get immediate
gratification so depending on what type
of type and I would even say size of
weed it is I will use one or the other
of these these implements now in this
case this is just like some rye grass or
crab grass whatever this is that Hy
Corey knife that I love so much notice
how it was all
cleaned before I started using it this
year so this type of thing it’s just so
gratifying and I don’t want to take too
much soil along with it
likewise this weed which I know has more
of a Tap Root this is also good for that
type of
application
now if I have small
start small seedlings of henbit or I
have low growing weeds like this then
sometimes I find that this scraper
weeder Works a little bit better
especially if I just have small
seedlings or if I’m wanting to scrape
something off of the surface like that
clover in that case that really works
well now in in other cases I might want
to use this Cobra head weeder and it
comes with a
protective rubber coat on the end that
really doesn’t want to come
off I think maybe it melted on
there there I got it it just required a
little bit of tenacity thank you guys
for your patience now these weeds right
here I I mean I can use this but I
prefer to use this for other kinds of
things where I’m really working in tight
spaces right now all of this is just so
pliable that it works really easy um but
this would also be good sadly all of my
weeds are already pretty large over here
but if they were here here we go if
they’re small like this little thing of
hen bit right here okay then look how
easily that comes
up well you said for tight places that
would get in and get a tiny thing it’s
hard to get a big but it’s just the
right tool for the right job so I can
come in here and in relatively short
order I can get rid of all of these
weeds and I can do it all up and down
this
expanse along the west side of this bed
but the other thing is I’m going to have
all of this weeded and looking really
nice and
beautiful when the these Encore aelas
come into bloom which is another reason
that I really want to get this area
tidied
up and also because this would be some
more real estate if I wanted to plant
some more hents or things like that that
I might have in my bulb inventory okay
let’s move on to our next beware this in
Jump the gun
gardening now you may recall that I
planted a huge drift of agapanthus from
the Southern Living plant collection
most of them were Indigo Frost which are
supposedly uh cold hearty I think down
to almost 0 degrees and hopefully those
made it but I had other varieties as
well I am very very tempted right now to
remove this Frozen mushy foliage that is
uh kind of just mounded around the
tubers of the agapanthus but am I going
to oh no because it might get cold again
this is protecting it to a certain
extent and if there is any chance it
survived I want to give it that chance
by not removing this foliage now one
type of thing that I am going to cut
back because these may have been you
know they may prove to be annuals but
one annual that I am going to cut back
right now or start to cut back and tend
to and or groom and that is all of my
pansies and violas I’ve planted them all
up and down in the landscape I’ve got
them in containers and I do know that
they still have life in them they can
really really handle B uh brutally cold
conditions before they succumb and you
can see that over here they may
look really awful but you can see that
there’s still lots of green on them so
I’m going to take off my sunglasses so I
can really see where to cut so while the
tops are nipped and brown
nevertheless underneath there is still
lots of green and by pruning them back
or cutting them back or deadheading them
whatever grooming them whatever term you
use this is going to force new growth
and in this instance I want new growth
to come out because I know if it does it
can handle the cold temperatures and the
other thing in Oklahoma and in the South
pansies and violas have a relatively
short lifespan because it gets hot so
fast they do their best in temperatures
like we have right now and I want them
to look their best while they are doing
their best so in this case I am going to
remove the mul around them and I’m also
going to TDY them up I’m going to dead
head them cut them back to encourage
bushiness in the event any of them look
kind of
leggy and then believe it or
not in a couple of weeks if not sooner
because it’s so warm I’m going to start
giving these a gentle feed and what do I
mean by a gentle feed this is one of the
few things in which I I do not practice
organically I am not an
absolutist most of what I do is organic
but this is one case including my
container plantings where I will use
Miracle Grow on a ho hose end sprayer so
I can come back in here and it just
really it’s like oh it’s like pansy
caffeine will just it will just
really get them some energy to start
being beautiful at a period of time when
they want to be beautiful so unlike the
agapanthus I am not going to hesitate to
start grooming cutting back and
deadheading all of my violas and my
pansies now don’t not only do you want
to not be premature in cutting back your
plants and cutting back your Evergreens
and some of your perennials you also
don’t want to be premature in discarding
and removing all of your garden debris
and what do I mean by that and this is
my question of the day what interesting
crafty Innovative resourceful things do
you guys do with some of your garden
debris and here’s my example so I was
out walking yesterday on this absolutely
beautiful day and underneath a weeping
willow tree were all of these branches
of okay and look at how pliable they are
and instinctively what does that tell
you they would make they would make a
wreath and so I decided that I wanted to
start making some re maybe not for
Valentine’s Day but re that might
simulate big bird’s nests for Easter um
so I just I just came out and I just
started to play so
using yeah
because
yeah because gardening gardening is play
okay so you guys recall I asked you do
you save um the wire rings that go with
your Christmas wreaths okay and I have
just dismantled one and now of course I
don’t know what I did with a wire wreath
to show you but you guys know what I’m
talking about it is a coated metal
wreath form all of this is attached to
it and I just took all of this off I
will be composting it and I could could
have used it to make these wreaths but
instead all I did was use the wire and
I’m making my own WS now this one is not
finished and then I decided and I’m not
going to show you how to do this today
this will be another video because I’ve
already taken up too much of your time
but I also had some dusty miller and I
thought o even when that dries that
could be beautiful on a wreath and then
I can Adorn it with maybe some other
remnants of the garden but here is what
I did
again you don’t have to have a wreath
form you just
take and this is the easy way so I’ve
got this pot that I just that I just
removed a dead plant from and it makes
the perfect template to make some kind
of wreath so here’s another one that I
started and basically all you
do is you just start weaving it around
and that’s what I’ve done
yeah and you guys have done this it’s
not it’s not rocket science or anything
but it is a way that you can use Garden
debris whether it is um oh whether
it’s oh any kind of cutting off of of
any kind of pliable shrub tree or in
this case a weeping willow you could use
trumpet vine you could use obviously um
great Vine you could use um oh you could
use anything that again is pliable
enough and then what this does is it
just kind of gives you a template and
then if you need to you can use bits of
that wire it’s all about reuse recycle
repurpose you can use bits of that wire
to secure it even more but see how I’ve
got a start there and then all I’m doing
is just taking this and weaving it
around it’s it’s very very gratifying I
think I have showed this in a video
before but it’s a way that you can get a
perfectly round a perfectly round wreath
form that then you can tuck other kinds
of O if I had some dried cogia or if I
had any kind of dried bay leaves or dry
herbs I could put them in here and it
would be it would be just gorgeous so
there you go don’t overlook the
potential of garden debris in your own
garden or on your walks when you are out
and about please answer the question of
the day what kind of crafty things do
you do with Garden debris in your own
yard and I hope you enjoyed this beware
of jump the gun gardening Wednesday
walk well today’s outfit dour is all
about protecting yourself from the Sun
and one of my resolutions this year
gardening resolutions uh for 2024 was to
really start protecting my my skin
better I.E especially on my forearms and
on my arms and so I’m going to try to be
much more disciplined about wearing
these farmer sleeves um I have several
pair of them they are not uncomfortable
yes they kind of do look like I’ve got
tattoos on my arms but nevertheless I
really think that they are brilliant for
protecting the skin on your arms but
also on the top of your hands which is
where we often uh see the first signs of
aging and obviously underneath it I have
lots of sunscreen and then if you don’t
already have a supply of cool jobs
garden gloves my favorite garden gloves
to get ready for the onslaught of spring
gardening you definitely want to do that
um my sunglasses are rayb bands off of
eBay my t-shirt is one that some I don’t
I we sell it I maybe at the bottom of
these YouTube videos I’m not really sure
it might even be one that’s gone away we
might have to bring it back if want so
people need to let us know if something
they would want if you someone commented
sent me an email saying that oh it
didn’t fit and it was too small and what
can I do well I don’t really have any
control over that so just we design the
shirts I design the shirts but just you
know contact the company in that respect
um I have had this little garden um
apron for a while it actually came from
a source out of Australia uh my britches
are from J Peterman my boots are high
seed boots and here is another bonus tip
not related to outfit of the day and
that is a lot of places right now are
going to have some of their last year
seeds on sale I was recently in La Hoya
California and I went to a brilliant
brilliant Nursery I believe it’s called
Rogers Nursery uh and look here I just
got all sorts of seeds that were half
price yes now maybe they aren’t going to
be quite as viable but my garden spaces
are so small and I can always um I can
always double up on the number of seeds
I put in there to ensure germination and
good viability and like I say at Half
Price It’s a gardening risk worth taking
so that’s something you might want to do
next time you go to your garden
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