Spring Chores

 While the weather can be variable in March, I can usually find a few hours each day when the weather is pleasant enough to spend some time working in the garden.  Time to turn the compost pile.  This compost needs to begin heating back up because if I sifted through this now, only about half of it would be ready to use.  I picked a warm, sunny day so any earth worms that I disturbed would be active enough to bury themselves again.

This is the best time of year to divide and/or relocate perennials.  They are still dormant and this gives them a chance to wake up and begin root growth in their new location.  Any perennial which consists of a thickening clump of small plants instead of a single stemmed plant can be divided and most benefit from it, especially grasses which will begin to die out in the center of a large clump.

 I divided my favorite grass Foxtrot Pennisetum.  I dug the entire clump, cut it in half, divided half of it into ten small divisions and replace the other half back where it was.  I didn't take any photos because this can be (and was) a really miserable job.  I tried cutting it in half with a transplant spade, which was like trying to balance a pogo stick on top of a basketball, then resorted to a really big carving knife.  I planted the divisions in front of the divided ribbon grass in the newly reworked area.

I circled a few but the row goes all the way to the end

I was noticing one benefit of the deep snow pack.  The evergreen  Carex grass (below) is usually burned brown by freezing temperatures, but this year they were protected and look very green.

Carex (sedge) grass is a very resilient grass to have in your landscape.  It is low growing and evergreen so it requires very little care and maintenance.  This cultivar is called Ice Dance.  I bought three of them a few years back and now I have it in nine or ten different spots due to dividing.  It is supposedly good for half sun to full shade but everywhere I have it is in full sun and it grows beautifully.