It depend on the plant. Some I do in the fall some I do in the spring. Last year I left most of my garden cleanup for the spring and it did my garden good. My yard tends to bloom later than most but by doing this it provided a layer over my garden and things bloomed earlier.

I'm very concerned that my bulbs are already coming up and they are gonna get their little buts frozen when real winter hits.

Watch that bending, Peggy. When I trimmed the Montauks, I let them fall where they were. Messy but safer. Almost every med I take says "may cause dizziness", and some of them do. Not that I'm trying to catch up to you.... 8-|

Peggy,

Do you need some help? if this mild weather lasts, I could head over while the kids are in school. Just let me know.

Carol Anne

Funny, What I read said wait until early spring (does that mean now?) and cut to 6 inches...

Gotta love the internet!

So based on what happened to you, I'll wait until maybe March and cut to maybe 4 inches. We'll see!

Best Regards,
Ron Carter
The Secret Garden @ 377

Holly grow Lightly is available all year around for all of your garden needs. This time of year is great for ivy removal and pruning.

Holly, someone started a thread about removing ivy from their back yard... I think it's Mantram who began the thread. You might check over there for some work.

Hey, anybody know where to get mulch now? We went to Home Depot hoping they might have broken the mulch out of storage by now because of the weather, but no such luck. I figure I might as well get on with things while we are having a non-winter.

Peggy - you're more than likely going to have to either get mulch from the town, or head to a place like Corrados or The Farm. Mulch is one of the later things I've seen delivered at HD (indoor hardscaping display, hardscaping outside, garden soil,then pansies). And probably not until March 15 or so.

{and can I just say I'm a bit scared that I know the product placement plan for the garden section at HD????}

momof4peepers said:

Peggy - you're more than likely going to have to either get mulch from the town, or head to a place like Corrados or The Farm. Mulch is one of the later things I've seen delivered at HD (indoor hardscaping display, hardscaping outside, garden soil,then pansies). And probably not until March 15 or so.

{and can I just say I'm a bit scared that I know the product placement plan for the garden section at HD????}

That late?? Well, can't say I should be surprised, because the garden center area had nothing at all going on day before yesterday. They do have the indoor lawn/patio furniture and grilling equipment going on, which is a start, but I'm ready NOW!! Guess I'll have to find the alternatives. Thanks, MO4P.

And that knowledge would scare the crap out of me. :))

(edited because one sentence was totally inscrutable :"> )

I like to use black mulch, because it makes the flower colors really pop. I used to buy licorice mulch, but it's pricey, so I tried the black dyed cedar. Not as nice, and it fades.

Ah, good update on the mulch. I'm planning to start my spring cleanup this weekend and was just wondering if I could find some mulch locally.

You can use the wood chips now. Compost (the chopped up leaves we put out at the curb) takes about a year.

MO4P, do you trust the mulch from the Town recycling folks? I've heard from many around West Orange that the Town's free mulch is suspect because it's not treated for bugs, disease, etc.

We use the dark brown mulch. I like the look of the black, but the brown strikes me as just a little more natural looking. But I reserve real dislike for the red stuff. I don't understand why anyone uses it. Nasty, nasty, nasty.

I have a really embarrassing question... what do you do with the old mulch? We haven't done a thing to our yard in the 2.5 years we've been in our house and the old (red) mulch is looking fugly. Do you cover it up with new mulch or remove it?

My mulch seems to disappear over time. I have no idea what happens to it, unless we have a Mulch Thief in the area. :-?

Well, I'm sure the weeds were really asking for it...;;)

Oh, that reminds me. My husband put down weed & feed a couple of days ago, but he thinks that with all the warm temperatures, the weeds will have already sprouted. Please tell me he's wrong... I'm so dreading crabgrass season. :((

lynnb said:

I already have some new weeds.

Those are flowers, I swear.

Recently I saw crabgrass in my backyard. In fact, I don't think it ever browned off this winter. :-(

It's Feb. 23 and it's 46 degrees outside at 8pm.

I just saw a live wasp on the deck! :bz

It's the Endtimes, I tell you, the Endtimes! @-) :O ~X(

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr... I don't mind the warm temperatures, but when I think about the allergy season starting NOW and the bugs showing up early and in greater numbers, I want to cry.

We had a swarm of white gnats around 4:30. Kids thought it was snow at first!

I also want to chime in that, as a result of this thread, we hired Holly, the OP, to do our Spring Clean-up. (It dovetailed nicely with MY thread looking for just the right kind of gardener to help me with our landscape.) She worked 3 long days in our much, much overgrown garden hauling away 5(?) truckloads of limbs, ivy, sticks etc. She brought another young woman to help who is getting her Master's at Rutgers in garden design. This crew is nothing like the guys with a leaf blower!

Holly is a real gem and I can already tell we will have many future adventures in landscaping together. Her education at the NY Botanical Gardens shows through in her work. She knows where to cut when pruning and she knows the "junk" trees from the fine specimens. We are tickled pink that she is very knowledgeable on our indigenous species and will lead you in the right direction.

Give her a call, she cares for your plants like they were loved ones or her pets! (I caught her talking to our Winter Berry Hollies as she was lopping them down a couple of feet. She was explaining to them why they needed to be cut down so drastically.)

Can someone post Holly's contact info?
Thanks!

Boy, only 15 or 20 minutes of pick-up-sticks in the garden beds yesterday and I feel like someone worked me over with a baseball bat. b-(

Oh, man, this is so true. I've had a couple of light clean-up sessions, too, and today went out for about an hour to clear dead leaves and put down new mulch, and now I am SO achy. This gives me so much more to look forward to over the coming weeks and months. :P