These winter gardening chores are the first steps to making a relaxing summer possible is to prepare your garden and what better time than mid to late winter.

• Turn the shrubbery and tree lines into something of beauty with light pruning
• Mulch your perennials and win the fight against weeds before they have the chance to infiltrate
• Sketch your new garden ideas for the landscape and start building.

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It sounds easy when you really think about it, and it is. Gardening can be very time consuming in the spring and summer and most everyone wants to enjoy the beautiful warm weather doing other activities not worry about the landscape.  A little planning ahead and a few days of clean up work and prepping can make gardening and yard care so much easier for the growing season.

A few planning tips for your garden can be as simple as:

• Building a raised bed for annuals or vegetable planting.
• Drawing out a new plan for plant placement.
• Jotting down ideas for new plants to add in.
• Start your own compost.
• Protect animal attracting plants with wire cages.
• Wrap thin bark trees that are susceptible to cold weather damage.

After making your garden plans, start doing a few things that will help will upkeep that would otherwise be difficult in the spring and summer.

• Pruning plants that have lost their leaves (except spring flowering shrubs/trees).
• Cutback ornamental grasses and perennials.
• Protect evergreens from winter burn.

After you have protected delicate plants for the worse part of winter and the early spring temperature fluctuations and, then have a plan for your garden design, it’s time to put everything into action. This will definitely be an achievement you will certainly be proud of and, when spring hits, you can relax knowing that your garden is in great shape.

Visit us at Greenwood Nursery Online Nursery and Garden Center for a great selection of flowering shrubs, nut trees, evergreen ground covers and more!

We’d love to hear from you about how you prepare your yard and garden for late winter weather. Leave us a comment or email us.

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How to Dry Lavender:

• Cut flowers in morning – after dew evaporates yet before heat of day
• (Rubber) band together in bunches of about a dozen or so stems
• Hang upside down in a warm dimly lit space with adequate ventilation
• Dry for one to weeks – until stalks are completely dried
• Once dried – dislodge the buds by rolling them back/forth in a towel or newspaper
• Store buds in an air tight container

Use your Hidcote and Munstead blooms in late spring and summer dishes. Fresh blooms should be submerged into water for a minute to release any dirt or insects hanging on. Dry the fresh lavender by wrapping them in a towel and lightly squeezing them. Lavender mixes beautifully with herbs such as rosemary, thyme andoregano.

Use fresh or dried lavender in the following dishes:

• Chicken (especially roasted chicken – my favorite!)
• Tuna or other strong flavored fish
• Salads (fresh lavender preferably)
• Stews
• Custards
• Sorbets
• Chocolate
• Jelly
• Sweets – cookies and cakes
• Heavy sauces (usually made with alcohol reductions/heavy creams)
• Breads
• Lavender honey - heat clean fresh blooms (no chemicals used) in regular or other flavored honey on low until lightly simmering. Strain flowers or leave in honey. Cool.

Related articles

• Luxurious Lavender Flavoured Honey (kristenleanne.wordpress.com)
• Lavender (gardenofikeda.wordpress.com)

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Arm yourself with a rake, weed eater or heavy shears, a tool belt, apron with pockets, basket, or pail, filled with clippers, gardening scissors, gardening gloves, old cloths, trash bags and, if available, a small garden saw. Start on one side of your property or garden and work across the yard and then clockwise around your house and other out buildings beginning with the front/main entrance. The point is to be able to go over all areas of your landscape so that you don’t miss plants.

Always begin an area by tackling the larger growing plants, whether trees or shrubs. First cut or saw out all branches that are dead, broken, touching or crossing. Then, if necessary, trim for shape. From the larger trees and shrubs, move onto smaller growing plants, such as ornamental grasses (which you will be cutting to the ground with either the weed eater or heavy shears), roses, evergreen herbs, perennials, ground covers, etc. Remember, if you haven’t pulled out the annuals that were planted last year, it is time to remove them now.

Once all plants have been pruned, shaped and otherwise cleaned up in an area, rake the clippings into the trash bag and move onto the next. By cleaning up an area completely, if you have to stop that day before finishing, you can begin with a new area the next time and you don’t have to back track. I find it easier to make sandwiches the night before to lunch on so I don’t have to completely stop my gardening. This way I am only taking a break and don’t lose focus on what I’m doing.

Look through our spring flowering garden plants.

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Flowering trees like tulip poplar, crape myrtles, smoketree and magnolias bring summer blooms. For fall foliage, plant trees like the sourwood, serviceberry, sambucus, and the Red Sunset andBrandywine Maples for brilliant fall colors.

Sourwood Trees are one of our more popular flowering tree varieties with customers planting them in larger quantities for honey production. Here in zone 7, they are mid summer blooming trees, producing beautiful white clusters of blooms late July to early August. Sourwood honey is considered to be a gourmet honey that is less sweet than wildflower honey.

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Nut Trees produce fruit with a hard covering or shell, yet are also grown for shade, wildlife and harvesting. While many oak trees are planted primarily for wildlife food plots, black walnut trees andhazelnut shrubs are for human consumption.

Black Walnuts are commonly planted for timber plantations. Gobbler Sawtooth Oak, Pin Oak andSawtooth Oak tree varieties are good choices for growing nut trees for wildlife and to attract and feed wild turkey.

Related articles

• Crape Myrtle Trees (greenwoodnurserygardens.com)

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Naturalize meadows and open spaces with our Mixed Daylily Hemerocallis or Natures Daylilies.Stargazer and Casa Blanca Lilies are beautiful Asiatic lilies and add a lovely oriental flair as well as emit fragrance throughout the garden.