Gardening: It’s time to get your landscape in shape for 2022

There’s a big sloppy old-year footprint we’ve left in our gardens as we head into 2022 and what we might want to set as our goals.

Most of us still have to do the clearing and cleaning. Some of our plants are still in decline, and there are those of us who are still holding out hope that those crunchy, crunchy twigs will somehow come back to life.

Well, gardener, I have some bad news. Maybe they won’t. The last remnants of Indian hawthorn, crepe myrtle tops, Arizona skeletons, and barkless live oaks will likely need your attention sooner rather than later.

The last two warm weeks (those were nice days) have given me time to walk through the landscape and make rigorous assessments of the things I will be accomplishing in the next several months. You may want to do the same so you can talk to nurseries and get ready to plant when the farmers’ trucks start delivering.

Begin removing any plants that are distorted or disfigured by the February cold 11 months in advance. Do not wait for the Indian hawthorn. It should have been removed and replaced months ago.

If the upper branches of the crepe myrtle are sparse and lethargic, and especially if the plants are producing strong shoots from their roots, trim the old, clean tops to the ground. Save 10 or 12 of the most powerful and powerful new picks and let them develop in 2022. By the end of next summer, their numbers are down to the last three or five trunks (odd numbers seem best) that will be the final frame for your new crape myrtle. The old stems have been so damaged by the cold that they cannot survive and thrive. Most crepe myrtle plants have not had this problem, but Tuscarora and two or three others have.

Live oaks that have lost up to half or more of their bark may not be able to pull off. If your tree has lost large pieces of bark, and if the top growth has become sparse, it’s time to remove it. Let a certified tree expert examine the tree and give you advice.

Thus, the list of plants that did not turn out well after the cold is growing. But while surveying my landscaping, I also decided there were plenty of other plants that were looking rather tired before the bad winter weather passed. Maybe it’s time to make some changes anyway, so I’m going to tackle them all at the same time.

I’ll be documenting our changes in a column sometime in the near future, but I just wanted to get my mental gears in motion for all of us. This is the time nursery designers have a few more hours in their days. Their lives will already become hectic by early spring.

Step out into your landscape and look critically at every bed—every component shrub or ground cover. Is it still good looking and strong? Has it been pruned and shaped too many times? If so, are most of its leaves near the tops of the plant? Are the lower limbs bare? Then maybe it’s time to start a new, strong planting.

I have a bed of Chinese dwarves who have been part of our landscape for 45 years. He’s been a loyal servant of my design, but in recent years a plant or two has become skinny and lopsided. One of them died and left a small gap. It’s time to change it.

I’ve been agonizing about making this replacement for a few years, but the time has come. I know I will feel better once I get the plants out. I have already purchased the alternatives. I have some plumbing I want to do before making the big change so everything is about to commit.

While I do that, I will erect a new fence along our county road. Wild boars found our property several years ago, and in desperation we put up wire fencing to keep them away. It started out ugly, and in the three years since then it’s gotten quite ugly. It’s easy to overlook the word “ugly” when it’s in front of you every day. (I shave every day.)

Another part of our landscape has developed some drainage issues. I will also address them. I will hire a local specialist to either change the grade for off-site water initially or install perforated gratings and pipes for a French drain. I’ll see what he suggests. I’ve already run these wheels as well.

You can do a lot of this work on your own. If you have three or four friends who live nearby, maybe you can plan to work together to help each other out on some bigger projects. One Saturday could be for one person’s house, and the other for another’s house. You can join in to rent equipment to cut the cost and then have a group party to celebrate completion.

Perhaps you could even extend this to a neighborhood party event where you clean up the street or the entire neighborhood. Maybe your HOA can be punished. Perhaps you could expand it to clean up your neighborhood school. Talk to the manager. It is possible that their employees were under severe stress after the freeze.

Those are the thoughts that were running through my mind. There are plenty of fun opportunities, and the best gardening months are on the calendar.