hey y'all it is springtime here in North Carolina and Spring has definitely
sprung this is the perfect time of year to do some spring cleanup in your garden
just a few hours ago this gorgeous bed looked like this hot mess
yet with just a few people we turned it from hot mess into gorgeousness stay
tuned and see how we did it
hey friends it is Jenny welcome to Gardening with Creekside and today I am
going to show you that even if you own a nursery and you love gardening your
whole garden does not look amazing all the time welcome to my back flowerbed
that is currently a very very big hot mess
so I know I'm not the only one that has hot messes in her life or her garden so
I'm going to show you the way that I clean it up and hopefully you can take
these little gardening tips and applying apply them to your own garden so we're
in the back of our house we got this beautiful red bud tree that is just
about to explode in all of her glory with her buds and because we're under
this tree we're on the backside of our house so this bed is really kind of
facing east and then in the summertime with all how the tilt of the earth of
the shift and all that this bed really does get full shape because of the tree
and because of our house so this is one little shade garden that I have created
that I've just had fun with over the years
clearly I have not maintained it the way that it should be and so it is overrun
and not looking very nice it is also the back of our house like I said our trash
can is there this tends to be the area of the house where everything gets
dumped including old lawn mowers that don't work the kids come in here and
just make their hot messes and just all sorts of things
on to the right of me was in the back of our porch our back porch we had an
above-ground pool we ripped it out and this summer we're gonna have a major
project back here where we're going to put in a whole patio area a living space
that we can come and enjoy so that is a really big hot mess right now but first
what we're going to work on is this bed so if you have an area like this the
very first thing you need to do is get your weeds out so I have got all sorts
of great friends with me here I've got Jerry's gonna help me I've got my sweet
precious bestest friend Christine is going to help us today so this is just
going to be a fun family affair um come on and come join us
so when you're weeding your garden you need to have a great tool so I found
this is called a Cobra and I got this a couple of years ago
from one of my favorite seed companies this thing is fantastic because you can
get underneath a weed and pull it up by its roots when I seed my garden I make
new little rows with it and also when you think something is a weed and it's
actually a perennial it digs it up really nicely so I guess my perennial
geranium that's right here is no longer coming back so oh well I guess
I'll just have to put a different plant it there so
we all make mistakes this alright moving on
so another reason why you really want to make sure to get rid of all your weeds
in your garden is because weeds will carry harmful pests for your other
plants for example this is I don't even know like some giant dandelion that has
prickles on it it is covered in aphids aphids if you do not know are their
found everywhere in nature but they will come and they will actually suck on your
plant especially soft plants like petunias calibrachoa is those kinds of
things and they will eventually if gone unchecked will kill your plant ladybugs
are a great beneficial insect that love to eat aphids so this is why an example
of bad bug versus good bug they're really hard to see because they're tiny but one
of the great telltale town tell tale signs is you see little white
droppings it's actually when they shed their skin or their exoskeleton and
you'll see them but they are very much the color of the plant
so we've trimmed back dead foliage from perennials now beside of me is a
perennial salvia that is a low spreader this is Diane and Diane is in desperate
need of a haircut so she blooms on new growth so I'm going to be selective I'm not
gonna cut her all the way to the ground because she's already started putting on
new growth this season so I'm just gonna trim her up and then when I see some
stalks that have no foliage I'm just going to cut that back so you're just
gonna come in here and you're gonna look for the most woody stems and get rid of
those I'm gonna go ahead and pull out these leaves and sticks end up falling
in there again this is where snails and slugs
love to hang out because those leaves provide a good cover nice damp
conditions that they can live in and if you've ever had to deal with snails and
slugs in your garden it is not fun so we really want to create an environment
that is not conducive to those guys
because Jerry and Christine worked so hard to make this pretty and I'm making
a mess again that's alright I tell my kids sometimes you got to make a
mess to get clean or to make it tidy so that's kind of what I'm doing I love
this Dianne Jack Jerry actually went to a propagating workshop with Tony Avent
oh gosh years ago and if you know anything about the plant world
Tony Avent is just an industry leader in plant breeding plant discoveries has an
amazing nursery in the Raleigh area has all these botanical gardens so several
I mean it was gosh it was quite a few years ago that Jerry went to one of
his propagation workshops he got to propagate all this fun stuff well one of
those things was this salvia and so it kind of holds a little special
memory for us because this was us really getting into the nursery industry and
learning about plants and all sorts of things so Diane it's tough Diane is a
great variety because she loves the sun obviously she's a perennial she's kind
of the moundy low-growing perennial Oh see and I found a weed that is a look at
that you never know what's hiding under there so giving her a good haircut she's
gonna flush out with some great new growth and she's gonna be covered and
her gorgeous fuchsia blooms the hummingbirds and the pollinators just
love springtime is also the perfect time in your garden to both divide plants
that maybe you want to share with somebody maybe they've gotten too big
you can divide them make more plants and it is the perfect time to also add
plants to your garden so I have a crinum lily right here and this crinum lily was
actually given to me by my mama and it clearly loves this spot it was huge it
does the most gorgeous blush pink blooms it is an exquisite old fashioned old timey plant
so I am going to divide this and I'm going to share with some of
my friends Christine is getting ready to plant some
hostas now one of the great things to do when you're planting new perennials
shrubs and trees is to use a great root fertilizer this is Espoma's Bio-tone
it has good bacteria in it has the mac Mycorrhizae bacteria which is really
helpful for your roots for your new plants because you're really looking to
establish a really great root system so that way you get years and years of
enjoyment from a great healthy plant so I'm gonna get dividing this lily and
Christine it's planting some hostas
so this crinum lily has this massive tuber bulbesque root system to it there's not
really any roots I would just call it like a bulb so what I'll do is it old
nursery pot fill up some dirt plop it in there and pass it on
let's do some more the last thing we're going to do before we put down our mulch
is we're gonna feed all of the existing plants again love the Espoma Plant-tone
it is a great all-purpose fertilizer for all these perennials just like your kids
plants need to have food too so this is a wonderful time of year to go ahead and
give them a great shot of food because they're getting ready to go into their
growing season and we want them to be nice the wasp wanted to say
hello to you he got his shot up close and personal shot okay so
everybody's gonna get some food here we go
okay friends we are all done with our spring cleanup here in this flower bed
does it not look fantastic I am absolutely blown away by the
transformation that pulling some weeds little trimming pruning and then a few
new perennials and then a fresh layer of mulch y'all it doesn't have to be
complicated but it does make a massive massive improvement and guess what the
best part of all my plants are going to be so happy now because they are fed
they've got a nice new blanket of mulch and they are going to be happy and
they're going to go through spring summer and fall like you would not
believe thank you so much for watching today I hope you have found this video
helpful and that you can take some of these gardening tips into your own
garden this spring make sure you get outside get some fresh air enjoy your
time outside also if you will please like this video subscribe to Gardening
with Creekside and we will see you next time guys bye