Spring Planting: How To Prep, Part 1

By Ghost Gardener
Columbia, SC
April 19, 2013

You’ve decided where to focus your yard beautification efforts this spring, and you’re itching to peruse colorful displays at a local nursery.  Patience my friend!  A bit of preparation is in order:  clean-out the area, notice the sun, and open your mind.

First things first:  rake-out and weed the area you are set to improve.  Use a shovel to remove the entire length of tap root of all volunteers, which are the woody-stemmed tree saplings that pop up wherever mature trees reside.  Get on your knees and pull up all the other undesirable weeds that should still be small enough to pull easily.  A general rule of thumb: weeds are usually NOT woody and usually pull up rather easily, but if they’ve had a chance to grow for several seasons, you’ll need a shovel to extricate the tap root.  If you’ve got a large area of well-established ivy or other spreading groundcover, you may choose to spray the heck out of it with Roundup—which is, ironically, nothing more than an extreme dose of fertilizer that causes the plant to explode at the cellular level—and you will probably have to apply several applications over the course of as many days.  Of course, anything you kill with an herbicide will need still to be pulled up, so hand-weeding is gonna happen!  

If you want to plant in the ground, use a shovel and loppers or garden clippers to remove roots from the dirt you’ll be amending and planting in.  The discovery of a huge tree root may prevent you from planting that one shrub in that specific spot, so find out now where your limitations are, if any.

When you’re done cleaning out the random roots, decide if you want to expand the bed size out further into the yard or keep its existing edges.  Either way, you need to create a small trench, about 4 wide x 4 deep to define the place where the bed ends and the grass begins.  You can use purchased edging, and I recommend the heavy-duty metal variety, but you have to dig a trench to place that in as it doesn’t just easily slide into the ground.   This new deep edge will create a place to tuck in the mulch that helps prevent grass from growing into the bed, and also gives a finished appearance to the bed.

Second, notice the sun!  See where and for how long it shines on the area you’re prepping.  Look at the area every 2 hours from 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.  Likewise, notice what kind of shade exists there, whether morning, afternoon, or both, and if it’s dappled (like through tree branches or surrounding shrubs) or full.   When you shop, you will encounter light requirement specs unique to each plant, and it can confuse you, so here’s the scoop:

Full Sun = plant can take morning and afternoon sun and needs at least 5-6 hours of direct sun to  grow and flower to its full potential

Part Sun/ Part Shade = plant needs shade in the hottest hours of the mid afternoon, but can take morning sun and/or 2-3 hours of afternoon sun

Shade /Full Shade = only some filtered morning sun and NO afternoon sun

Finally, open your mind.  Are you creating or restoring a bed?  Consider adding a mix of plants and containers and garden art.  Yes, you can have your pop of color from that oval of petunias you plan to plant in front of those oldie but goodie boxwoods, but if you’re unsure about your long-range plan, or not sure of the color of your thumb, keep your in-ground efforts minimal and accessorize with a metal sculpture, a grouping of birdhouses, or some interesting architectural salvage, like a pedestal. Even cheesy garden statuary can create a no-maintenance focal point. 

Are planted containers your goal?  Assess what you already have after cleaning last summer’s dead stuff out of existing pots.  Groups of containers– and do use an odd number only—look fantastic in an empty spot in a bed just as a grouping works on the corner of a patio or the foot of your front steps.  You’re not limited to a pair of pots flanking the front door!  Best of all, pots are mobile in case you read the light wrong.  Anything can serve as a container for live plants as long as there are drainage holes to allow water to drain through! 

Sprucing up a sitting area?  Matchy-matchy is okay, but an eclectic mix of furniture adds character–especially if you’ve already got a piece or two to build on.   Cool containers or a small bed can add all the necessary pizzazz to the most ordinary patio set.

Next week:  How to Prep, part 2