Weekend Gardener: Tend to Spring Bulbs and Prevent Blossom End Rot

Our resident garden expert, Laura Stone of has the following tips for getting out and gardening this weekend:

By now, your spring flowering bulb leaves should be starting to turn yellow. You should remove foliage from those plants and set out bedding plants to cover the bare spots using care not to damage the bulbs.

Spring flowering shrubs such as spirea, viburnum, lilac and forsythia should be pruned as soon as they are done blooming.

During the hot summer months, mulch can be especially useful for conserving water. For vegetable gardens, shredded leaves or grass clippings are good mulch material. 

Continue planting warm season vegetable crops such as beans, squash and cucumbers and watch for blossom end rot. Tomatoes, peppers, squash and watermelons seem to get that the most. It can be prevented by maintaining uniform soil moisture, by mulching and watering correctly, planting in well drained soil and not cultivating deeper than one inch within one foot of the plant. Also avoid the use of high nitrogen fertilizers.

Most importantly, Stone advises you to “Enjoy the weekend! Looks like a beautiful one!”