a year in my garden, part 2: march

March 18, 2011/

I have 3 gardens on my property:

The front bed is my “white garden” (really white and green – okay, with a little purple too).
The rear bed is my “deer garden” – the deer have full access so I’ve selected plantings that are “resistant” (that sound you hear? It’s the deer laughing their heads off…..).
And then there’s “the lab” – a side bed that is filled mostly with trial plants and discards from jobs I’ve done.

Although March is mostly quiet in the garden it’s one of my favorite times of the year. With the snow finally gone, I love to go out and get up close to see all the little signs that tell me spring is here and my plants are coming back to life.

The main tasks in the garden this month fall to the talented landscaper who works with me. He does a big spring clean-up, which includes: cutting back the ornamental grasses, getting rid of all the dead winter growth and adding a nice thick layer of mulch. I get a lot of comments about my mulch which, as you can see in the pictures, is a rich dark brown – like crumbled chocolate cake. It’s called Sweet Peet, and I’ll be talking more about it – and why mulching is so important – in a future post.

For now, here’s a peek at what’s happening in March:

the white garden, all cleaned up