Garden Projects 2025

Projects Spring 2025

Perennial Border- continue bed

Front Slope- continue to plant perennials and shrubs

Hyssop Garden Border- fill in plants that don't survive

Garbage Can Bed Perennials- amend soil and plant perennials

Finish Shady Side Yard- edging and decorative stones

Veggie Garden- remove cinder blocks, amend depleted soil

Early Spring Chores

• Transplant Globe Thistle (and whatever) seedlings that were started on slope to Cottage Garden.

• Build new sieve with 1/2 squares to sift soil and compost. Make sure it fits over the wheelbarrow.

• Soil test on broccoli and tomato beds. Amend soil as required. NPK Calculator

• Dig out broccoli bed and clear rocks and debris. sieve with new sifter.

• Expand spaces to grow between beds for Jalapeño peppers, Chinese five color peppers and Cucamelons. Dig out rocks and roots, sift soil and amend soil.

• Get rid of cinder blocks. Level out the beds, no need for edging. Leave mulched space needed to walk around back and sides of beds to pull weeds and harvest.

• Rake up old wood chip mulch and put down 2-4 sheet layers of newspaper before replacing new mulch.

Front Slope

• Divide catmint in the spring. Dig up the parent plant and make a vertical cut to shear through the root ball. Make sure each division has a nice clump of roots and at least three or four stems on it. Once you have divided the plant, replant divisions about a foot apart at the top of the new front slop planting bed.

• New look for the top of the slope should look uniform all the way across. Get rid of daylily and transplant daffodils to perennial bed or maybe the garbage can bed?

• Plant two more hydrangea (Mother's Day).

• Plant two more Spirea- Beyond Midnight. 

• Use wood chips to mulch the front slope after planting.

• Finish cutting down tree next to shed on the front slope. Cut the last overarching branch over front slope.

• Remove rest of mulberry stump on front slope. Plant grass seed in empty spot.

• If necessary, reapply vine killer to vine on front slope behind shed.

• Fill in blank spots with New Jersey Tea seedlings.

• Transplant Globe Thistle (and whatever) seedlings that were started on slope to Cottage Garden.

Perennial Border 

• Mark out more beds to the right. Mow grass very low. Remove the rest of the brush and fallen branches and cover with tarps.

• Dig out stumps.

• Work soil. Dig out roots and rocks. Amend with compost and fertilizer. 

• Plant shrubs- Rose of Sharon and maybe Sprirea if you can afford it.

• Plant perennials and annuals.

• Mulch.

Misc. 

• Continue to remove rotting stump on south side of house.

• Remove trees south side corner of house. Prepare for forsythia in 2026.

• Build three bay Compost bin. Make sure it is 4' x4'. Add grass clippings to wood chips and turn wood chips weekly.

Veggie Garden

• Do soil test on broccoli and tomato beds. Amend soil as required. NPK Calculator
• Fertilizer Option 1: Choose a general All Purpose Fertilizer like Down to Earth
• Amend at planting- three beds are 96 square feet, 6 lbs fertilizer covers 110 sq. feet
• Use 2 types of Fish Emulsion: Tomato and Veg for the first few weeks, and Rose and Flowering for the rest of the season.
• Fertilizer Option 2: Heavy feeders like tomato and broccoli should receive 4.8 ounces per 100 sq. ft. Blood meal Recommendation: 0.5 ounces of 12-0-0 per 32 square feet
• Broccoli- side-dress 3 weeks after transplanting (side-dress broccoli a second time after central head is harvested to encourage small heads on side shoots).
• Tomato- side-dress when fruits first form.
• Amend soil two weeks before planting- mid-April. Replenish Veggie beds with Coast of Maine Tomato and Veggies Soil- buy 8 bags. Available at Gade? and Hewitts, seems to be the best quality, but of course more expensive. 
• Amend soil with bagged compost from Schenectady County Conservation District. Price 3 for $8 
• Price 3 for $8, get 16 bags next year= $56. 
• Five to improve Forsythia and Rose of Sharon
• six for the new perennial bed
• five for front porch beds, rhubarb bed 
• A 20 dry quarts potting soil is approximately 3/4 of a cubic foot.
• Also add wood ash to veggie garden beds.
• Mulch beds: Try pine shavings this year. Comes in bales in plastic from Tractor Supply. Or pine straw for strawberries and dried grass clipping for tomatoes. 

• Rhubarb- See if they come back, if so, add wire cage to protect plants, including top.  Otherwise, buy more rhubarb plants from Gade farms in early April.  

• Comfrey- plant six roots along the back of the garden fence. Protect young plants until they are established. Damn groundhogs!  Comfrey 
• Add floppy edge to fence to keep squirrels out? Add additional fence posts in the middle of the garden fence where it is bending. Add tension wire and stakes in the ground.

• Broccoli methods: dig out entire bed and sift soil to take out rocks, amend soil well. This bed might be depleted because broccoli is a heavy feeder. Use the new bed cover, add more pest netting at ground level, continue to plant 8 plants, fertilize every two weeks. Add plastic moth decoys? 

• Build bird netting for strawberry bed. Lift off for easy access.

• Add soaker hose to carrot and scallion rows.
• Expand spaces to grow between beds for Jalapeño peppers, Chinese five color peppers and Cucamelons. Dig out rocks and roots, sift soil and amend soil.

• Get rid of cinder blocks. Level out the beds, no need for edging. Leave mulched space needed to walk around back and sides of beds to pull weeds and harvest.

• Harvest Asparagus more frequently (every day when they get going, once spears are 6-8", width of spread hand) and continue for six weeks, June 1 -14. Note when this falls this year for future reference.

• Pull tomato plants in mid-September and plant cover crop. Then plant garlic in the same bed in mid-October.

• Dig cover crops in at least a month (early to mid April) before sowing or planting.
• Birds eat a lot of bugs. Put out bird houses.

• Use fish emulsion for tomatoes and peppers. For determinate tomatoes, once in mid-June. For indeterminate tomatoes and peppers, apply monthly in the growing season: mid-June, mid-July and mid-August.

Hyssop Blue Border 

• Replace any hyssop that did not make it through the winter.

• V-Trench- make a border on the outside edge of the wood chip mulch by creating a "V" trench to keep lawn out.

• Decide what to plant the back side of fence.

Flowers

• Plant Veronica and Coreopsis in Garbage can bed.

Shady Side Yard

• Finish the side in the shade
• Cut metal edging
• Add metal edging
• Get the load of landscape rocks

Fertilize Perennials

• Peony- An annual application of compost mixed with a very small amount of fertilizer around the base of the plant is all that is needed. When you do feed with compost and fertilizer, do it just after the plants have finished blooming.
• Hydrangea Macrophylla- For optimal growth, bloom production, and quality, fertilize three times:
• In early spring when plants are just leafing out
• In early May to boost their flower production for summer
• In late June/early July to help your plants finish the summer strong

Forsythia Hedge- postpone to 2026

• Clear crummy trees at the south corner by Zenner Road and River Road. Remove brush to prepare for Forsythia.
• Measure out spacing of eight plants, 5' on center from corner across yard to connect to the other forsythia.
• Dig hole for each (8). Remove grass 3' circle. Mulch.
• Water 2" per week.