A Lot to Do in Your Zone 6 or 7 Princeton Garden

There is just so much to do in the garden right now! Mulch if you like,  and edge the garden so things are tidy. I use a  natural mulch and I spread it very thin.  Prune your winter shrubs and wintering flowering vines. I have a tree peony in desparate need of this task.  Plant summer  and fall flowering bulbs. I have to tell you I never get to this in my own garden. Plant any permanent ground cover.  I am going to add some more European Ginger that does well in the shade by my carriage home's front door.  Plant your roses and container roses.  I will be doing some David Austin heirloom pink roses this year because the carriage home is kind of a Nantucket grey and it begs for pink.  Ahh yes,  spray your fruit trees for fungus.  When I moved in last spring the pear and apple trees were covered in rust.  Now is the time.
Plant your heat loving perennials which will allow then to root in and bloom for you.  Remember with perennials,  the rule...  Sleep, creep, and leap the third season.

Good time to plant your ornamental trees, shrubs or vines.  I will be planting a special specimen out front of the house this month or next.

Plant your vegetable seedlings.  I am wondering about still doing one raised cedar bed on our tiny lot.

Don't forget to feed your houseplants.   Most of all of our herbs inside are making it through the winter and seems happy to think of Mother's Day.  Then I can send them outside again on my garden deck past our frost date.

I love Esponas Fertilizers to be used on your perennials.  Don't forget that.  Everything needs water and FOOD!

Ferns and Foliage in your Princeton Garden

I know there are many of you out there wondering what to do in your gardens without flowers as a thought. Remember about texture and three dimensional interest that does not always come in the conclusion of a flower.  There are many wonderful ferns that are easy to care for, do not involve pests, are native (like the maidenhair fern),  and deer do not eat them!
Here's a list of Deer Resistant and NATIVE Ferns!
Fern Autumn Dryopteris erythrosora
Fern Christmas Polystichum acrostichoides
Fern Cinnamon Osmunda cinnanomea
Fern Deer Blechnum
Fern Everwood Dryopteris remota
Fern Hayscented Dennstaedtia punctilobula
Fern Ostrich Matteuccia struthiopteris
Fern Royal Osmunda regalis

Do not forget foliage in the form of tree bark. I will be showing you a lovely Paperbark Maple Acer griseum which exfoliates its cinnamon bark as it matures year round. Its is one of the very last maples to lose its leaves which adds to its elegant beauty. Very rare and can be seen in the Washington DC at the Pentagon Memorial.