Quinn Foster digs into the dirt before planting a potato in this June 2019 file photo. Gardening season is in full swing and the City of Medicine Hat's parks technician is offering tips to help you through the season.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
Yard care, while rewarding, can be a bit overwhelming. We live in a climate of extreme temperatures, with sweltering hot summers and periods of deep cold in the winter. Even those warm chinook winds, while a welcome reprieve from Old Man Winter, are a menace to trees and shrubs, drying out evergreens or stealing away insulating snow cover ahead of the next cold front. It is a wonder any plant can endure these conditions, and it can take a toll on our landscapes.
Hello, my name is Jeff Quinlan, I am an International Society of Arboriculture-certified arborist and horticulturalist, and a student of landscape maintenance for more than 20 years. On behalf of the City of Medicine Hat’s parks and recreation department, I hope to offer help for the home yard care enthusiast, whether you are new to the process or newly moved to our great city. I, like so many gardeners and landscape workers, am always learning, and I hope to share some of this knowledge with our community.
We are a little more than six weeks into spring, and the cooler mornings of early April are slowly warming as we head into May. You may have noticed trees and shrubs in your yard are coming out of dormancy, with buds popping open and perennials beginning to peek through the soil.
It is a season of change as outdoor plant life begins again. Here are some helpful maintenance tips as you explore your yard and welcome back those enduring plants.
Spring cleanup
While leaf litter can shelter beneficial critters such as lady bird beetles (ladybugs), by now they have moved on. So it is a good plan to start cleaning any remnants of last year’s leaves from beds and turf.
Molds and pathogens that are harmful to plants can reside in decaying leaf litter, and plants will do better with proper air flow around them.
Lawn
With frost (hopefully) in our rear-view mirror, gardeners may want to turn attention to their lawns and prepare them for the season. Most perennial grass in our climate will begin to grow as average daily temperatures reach 15 degrees or higher. There are a few things that can be done ahead of the growing season, after the threat of frost has gone, to help maintain a dense lawn that is able to absorb water and nutrients as readily as possible.
Dethatching, aerating, fertilizing – it can seem overwhelming at times, to know when to do what, and… why do any of them? Let’s look at each practice:
Dethatching is the process of removing grass clippings and dead grass embedded between the soil surface and the blades of live turf. If thatch accumulates too much, it can prevent water and nutrients from entering the soil.
Power raking also removes thatch, but involves different implements, and is a more intensive process. If your lawn has not been dethatched for several seasons, a power rake may be in order.
We will delve further into the topic of fertilizers in a subsequent article, but you may want to apply a slow-release turf fertilizer after dethatching. This will add nutrients to the soil that turf grass needs. Many of these types of fertilizers have a coating that slows their degradation into the soil, so the nutrients are broken down into the soil across a longer period.
If your lawn is a high-traffic area, with kids and pets romping around, it may be a bit compacted. As topsoil compresses, roots have a tough time breathing and retrieving nutrients and water, and so aerating can significantly reduce that compaction around turf-root zones, allowing the soil to breathe again.
Watering is more effective and will take less time on aerated soil. Ideally, the slow-release fertilizer will have better contact into the soil, post aeration. The plugs pulled out of the soil can remain on the surface of the lawn. There’s good stuff in there, and they will slowly break down and reincorporate in the topsoil.
Pruning
If you see swollen buds on your tree or shrub, now is not the time to prune live wood. Early spring is known as a no-go for pruning live wood, due to the movement of nutrients from the roots to the shoots of the plant.
It is a vulnerable time physiologically, as the plant cannot yet make the carbohydrates it needs through photo synthesis. Depending on the plant, you may be removing flower buds by pruning at this time. It’s best to wait until the tree or shrub has leafed out completely.
From all of us at parks and recreation, we hope you enjoy this beautiful time of year, and spending time in your yard as it slowly wakes up, bustling with life.
Jeff Quinlan is the parks technician for the City of Medicine Hat, which involves technical support for the department through research, insect and disease monitoring (of trees), and public education/engagement through things like the Adopt a Tree program and the annual Litter Blitz. Quinlan is an ISA certified arborist with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Horticulture. Prior to being in Medicine Hat, Quinlan also worked as a Japanese Garden Technician for several years at Nikka Yuko, Japanese Gardens in Lethbridge. His gardening tips will appear in the News throughout the growing season.
