Spring Gardening with Jess Morgan

With spring in full swing, we decided to have a chat with our friend and local residential gardener, Jess Morgan, for some tips for getting outside and opening up your gardens for the season to help get those May flowers blooming!

#1 Don’t clean out your beds too early.

There are a lot of pollinators and a whole ecosystem of microbes that exist in your soil that need it to stay intact until it’s warm enough. You will want to wait for a lot of those pollinators to emerge before you clean those beds out. A lot of us get really eager to get those leaves and debris out of our gardens as soon as the snow melts, but you really need to wait for the temperatures to warm up so that you’re not injuring our small friends that help the flowers grow. You're going to want to wait as long as you can, but start working as vegetation starts popping up as it gets warm. 

#2 Try to prune as early as you can.

As soon as the snow is gone or it looks like you’re not getting any freezing precipitation, that's when you can start to prune. You’re going to want to get things going before the leaves start emerging if they’re deciduous. I usually shoot for late March. Basically, if things are still really tight and no buds are starting to swell, that’s the best time –especially for fruit trees. You don't want to prune fruit trees too late in the season because it stunts them. So get that pruning out of the way before you clean out your beds. 

#3 Stop trying to fight against nature.

If you find that the weather is not cooperating and if it stays cold, then you should probably just hold off on trying to open things up. Plants have no insulation when the temperatures go back and forth so leaving things alone while we wait for spring to arrive is really, really important. It's a great time to practice patience. Don’t try too hard to have an agenda. Some springs are late, some springs are early and you kind of have to just let it happen. You can really impact the health of your plants if you open things up too late or too early. Paying attention to what weather is coming, if you're expecting freezing temperatures, you don't want to have things too exposed. If you’re looking to clean up your gardens and see snow or even cold rain in the forecast, I would hold off. Don’t fight against nature!

And of course, it’s very important to wear appropriate footwear while you’re out in the garden. I personally love my Duckfeet, they hold up really well and they’re waterproof. I work on my feet and I brag actively about how little my feet hurt at the end of the day (which might be annoying, but it’s true!). My boyfriend gets really sore feet and I come home every day and get to say that my feet aren’t sore. I find that I can layer up with socks if I need to, I never get sore feet, the temperature control is amazing, and my feet don’t get wet. I love my boots!

A big thanks to Jess for spending time in the garden with us. Shop Jess’ favorite boots for gardening, Roskilde Cocoa. 

All of us at Duckfeet are wishing you sunny days with flowers in bloom. Be sure to snap a photo of your Duckfeet hard at work in the garden and share it with us!