The professional gardeners I work with are outside gardening now, all cold and wet. The spring garden can get chilly! But we also do a lot of administrative work. Planning budgets, writing checklists for the staff for the summertime, organizing files.

I’m trying out two new, fun things. One is playing with dictation software (MacSpeech.) So Im actually speaking this rather than typing it. And the other is planning a long, February vacation in Southeast Asia. More about that when Tom, Bob, Pat and I return from hiking in Laos!

In the next few weeks, seed into the perennial border lettuce, beets, radish, and fennel. All have beautiful leaves, and will look great when perennial leaves start to unfurl in a few months. And what could be more rewarding that pulling a few, fantastically nutritious radish to roast for your friends?

Early Spring Garden Checklist

Here’s what else you should be doing in the garden right now.

– Prune roses, not too hard though! We have lots of antique roses mixed into our borders. Jim Martin of Charleston Parks Conservancy wants to reinvigorate antique rose use. South Carolina’s Ashedown Roses closed its doors last month.

– Deadhead Pansies. Cut all the flowers off! Pinch back now and youll have more flowers in the spring. A little liquid feed is great for them too.

– Divide and save! This week, I divided and spread around to other beds, Crinum Stars and Stripes, Phlox, Chrysanthemum and the tiny, fine textured, cat-hair like Carax appalachica.

Looking Great Now

Narcissus February Gold in full flower
Muscari, most of which are not really perennial for us, starting to flower.
Magnolia stellata Royal Star, and old fashioned Quince will start to flower – every border needs a shrub.

I have a fetish for little biennials that are forming their thick winter rosettes in preparation for springtime flowers. Of course we started them in the fall:

– Milk Thistle, which is used in teas for liver cleansing, has deep green leaves with spidery aluminum veins.
– Adlumia, with ferny, fine leaves.
– Hot House Girls (Salvia argentia). A British friend gave me this common name years ago, because the fuzzy leaves smell of bit of sweat.

I’m off to Asia for a few weeks! Back in mid-March for Spring