Nanaimo Gardening Advice

---

Where Is Spring 

This Year?

We are now over one month into spring this year and the weather isn't much different in the temperature department than it was during the winter we all like to boast about.

The cool damp weather is resulting in a delayed start of most perennials and even the trees are lagging behind where they should be by this time of the year. I have not checked the actual stats at the weather office but my gardening gene tells me that things are really running behind this year.

If you are like me you are chomping at the bit to get into the garden and get things going, but alas we will just have to be patient this year. We can still clean out the beds, add some fresh top dressing and do some pruning here and there, but that is about the extent of it.

As for putting out any new plants, either in the ground or in containers, we really need to resist the urge, and hold off until things really warm up. Taking an annual that has been grown in a heated green house and plunking it into the cold cruel ground is simply not the thing to do.

This is the time of year some of the local nurseries and big box retailers bring in some early offerings to sell to either the inexperienced or impatient gardener. Do yourself and your pocket book a favour and resist the urge to add some of that green house grown colour to your yard just yet.

An excellent rule of thumb as to when you should consider planting annuals in your garden is to wait until at least the 24th of May or until there is no more snow on Mt. Benson. Even if there is no snow on Benson, wait until the 24th and on the 24th if there is snow on Benson wait for it to leave. If you wait, you will find your garden is just as far along by mid-July as you will be by rushing things planting early. Also planting too early simply results in stunted growth and in many cases a complete re-planting as your first plants just languish and die.

This past Saturday was but a sampling of the good things to come, and I bet a few of us rushed to the nursery or hardware store hoping that gardening season had finally arrived. But, alas it looks like it will still be several weeks before spring begins in earnest.