It’s time to begin work in the garden, work that is easier to do now, before new shoots of perennials and ferns begin poking out of the ground and before shrubs and trees start to leaf out. This is the best time to clean up dead foliage from last year’s perennials, ferns, and grasses, to prune overgrown trees, shrubs, and roses, and to transplant shrubs and small trees that would be much happier in a different location with new companions. Early spring is also a good time to get a jump on those landscape construction projects you’ve been thinking about, but didn’t get going on last year. Our landscape company, Rodda and Sons Landscapes, works all winter long building retaining walls, sidewalks, patios, decks and fences, and preparing planting beds. I just talked to a client who said, “I wish we had done this years ago.” What are you waiting for?

Early Blooming Hellebores

Pruning trees and shrubs is traditionally winter and early spring work. The old adage to prune your roses on George Washington’s Birthday holds true in the Puget Sound area. I like to prune our deciduous trees and shrubs before they leaf out so I can see the branching patterns and determine more easily which branches should be removed. There’s a kind of zen to spending time with your Japanese laceleaf maple, deciding on the shape you want it to develop and how to achieve that gnarled-branch, ageless look. I don’t particularly like shearing shrubs, so tend in my own garden to cut one branch at a time. However, my husband got an electric hedge trimmer and loves trimming our Ilex hedge in a rope shape. He gets lots of compliments on it.

Transplanting small trees and shrubs is also best done in the winter and early spring, when their root systems are still dormant and they suffer less transplant shock. Rhododendrons, Pieris japonicas, and camellias are just a few of the shrubs that transplant easily this time of year. Rodda and Sons Landscapes has successfully transplanted several large Japanese laceleaf maples before they have leafed out. In my own garden, I just moved a tree peony to give it space to become a large shrub. Into its old spot, I will move a small shrub hypericum. The hypericum’s roots are full of invasive grasses, so I will bareroot it to remove all of the grass roots. After I have lifted the hypericum out of the ground, I’ll wash off all of the soil with a hose and tear out the grass roots, then replant the shrub in it’s new location. I have been successful treating treasured perennials that have been invaded by grasses in this same way, saving and replanting small clumps.

It’s not too early here in the Puget Sound area to gather up your pruners and shovel, slide into your boots and work jacket, pull on your garden gloves, and enjoy that first breath of spring.

Jan Rodda, Rodda and Sons Landscapes, Inc.