March is always a good time to think about cleaning the spring cleaning outdoors. Yes, it is usually still cold, but the promise of spring is in the air.
When gardeners start creating your to-do list, you have to keep in mind that it is not as easy as it is now and called a day. Conscientious planters should also consider the ecosystem around their farms.
Often the first instinct is to freshly clean and start – but Cianna Rowe, kindergarten teacher at Lauren's Garden Service in Howard County, asks people to leave the leaves.
“It is this big movement at the moment and there are many reasons why you should do it,” she says.
They not only eat insects and herbivores, but when the leaves break down, especially those that are wet from rain, they create more soil.
Rowe knows that it can be difficult to keep all leaves challenging and suggests leaving as many as possible on the farm and bringing the rest to places such as the Howard County landfill with which people can turn the garden sections into compost and mulch. Baltimore County also enables many types of garden and garden materials to be composted in trash cans or specific bags.
It also suggests letting old flower heads around as a seed source for the birds – and bonus also means that they can spend less for bird seeds.
Mulch is another area that you can concentrate on during spring cleaning. There are ways to really make mulch as a habitat. Rowe proposes “Green Mulch Plants”. This calls them native species that become very low to the ground and help the soil dry out.
Local violets, local strawberries and Carex species, a distant relative of the grass family, are good green mulches to create an environment in which flower beds are not defined against wood shavings but leafy vegetables. They make the floor more relaxed and give the trench pollinator – such as the friendly cousin of the honeybee, the floor nest bee – the possibility to set up pollen transactions in anticipation of spring flowers.
However, planting and planting green mulch can take a while, so that in the meantime the loosening of existing mulch is the next best to help this pollinator and only use colored mulch in the beds. Often the colored or “colored” mulch makes it difficult for the mulch, the wood used in traditional mulch, often from broken wooden pallets, old terraces and even ships, so that the wood can still have residues of harder chemicals from its previous lives.
Since the resettlement of pollares, birds and other helpful creatures can be withdrawn into the gardens after the winter after winter, Rowe recommends some other ways to bring a garden back on the right track. Some non-local plants such as garlic mustard according to heart-shaped leaves and small white flower can change the ground composition, so that the abduction is a must.
Rowe also suggests, while trimming hedges or shrubs are careful – even if they are empty, another bird can move in.
By priorizing habitat -friendly practices, gardens can quickly become a port for local animals. Rowe says:
“To see the immediate success of either something that makes a nest … or [animals] The food of the berries is usually the encouragement that people need to continue planting. “