Tips for Flowers
- Pick faded flowers off fuchsia when they start wilting – this forces more blooms.
- Water container plants daily
- Feed every two weeks
- Perennial flowers for next year can be seeded at the end of June.
- Cut flowers early in the morning
- Cut the steams at an angle with a sharp knife
- Remove all leaves that would be under water
Tips for Vegetables
- For the best results with warm-season vegetables, plant before June
- Once your rhubarb plant is 4 years old, divide it and replant
- Asparagus and Rhubarb leaf stalks should be cut after their tops are killed by frost
- Do not store apples or pears with vegetables
- General Yard & Garden Care
- Don’t install edging after long periods of rain, this causes swelling and once dried, it can move
- Water your lawn regularly
- Never start a garden when the ground is frozen or soaking wet
- Situate your garden so it can receive 6 hours of sun per day. Normally, your spot would face due south or southeast
- Keep your garden away from mature trees – as they could invade your soil with their roots
- Make sure to provide plenty of air circulation around your garden and plants
- Use some sort of border for your garden – such as plastic, metal, wood, or stone
- Try to spend % hour a day tending to your lawn
- Water when the soil feels dry or when plants are drooping
- Water in the early morning, or later in the evening
Tips for Fruits & Berries
- Keep grass around your fruit trees trimmed and short.
- For best flavor, pick strawberries at first sign of ripeness
- Protect precious strawberries from birds by covering with netting
- Remove suckers from blackberries and strawberries as they appear
- Pick your strawberries early in the day – they keep better
Tips for Bulbs
- Plant spring flowering bulbs, for example, Daffodils, Tulips, Crocus and Hyacinths in the fall (before the first hard frost, which is typically from mid-September to mid-October).
- Plant summer/fall flowering bulbs like Gladioli and Dahlias in the spring (May in northern Minnesota). They will flower in 3 months.
- Lily bulbs (Asiatic) can be planted in the spring or the fall, or immediately you acquire them. They do not like to dry out.
- Bulb foliage moves nutrients to the bulbs, so avoid removing the green foliage until it has turned brown.
- Spring flowering bulbs can be left in the ground, but the best time to move them or divide them would be when the foliage has turned brown.
- Gladioli and Dahlias need to be lifted before the onset of winter and stored appropriately – in a dry, dark place with good air circulation at temperatures between 35 and 55 degrees.
- For best results, aim to plant your bulbs in groups.
