Hi Everyone! Because of the Coronavirus, we’ve all been told to stay home. I say, take it a step further. Let’s stay home and garden. Once you’ve been through your backlog of Netflix and Amazon Prime, you can read a book on rainy days, trawl the internet endlessly, or you can go outside.
My ‘Jane’ magnolia has grown very large over the years. 
Magnolia ‘Jane’ in 2009 maybe one year after I planted it. Hard to believe it was the same tree.
If we have to stay home, let’s stay home and garden.
What can we do in the garden now? Plenty. It’s time to prune roses and feed them. That reminds me, I need to pick up some natural food for my roses. Normally, I would buy Mills’ Rose Magic, but I don’t want to put further strain on delivery systems right now. My plan, if I do it, is to pop in and pop out of my local nursery. However, I may wait a couple of weeks. I could put shredded leaves on the roses now and do the other later.
Cut back your dead perennials. In Oklahoma, it’s too wet out there today to do much other than pruning and cutting back. We’ve had a lot of rain lately. Bill measured four inches in the rain gauge this morning, and storms are forecast for tonight and tomorrow.
While you cut back those perennials, also keep removing oak leaves from beds and borders because they won’t break down fast enough and will smother your other plants.
On the beekeeper front, Bill and I built this beautiful new hive in case I need to make a split from one of my current colonies. I’ve done my first inspection where I didn’t see any queen cells, but this time of year, the bees could start building them anytime.
I am also feeding my honey bees sugar water, and I have a little video to show you. I uploaded it to IGTV and YouTube.
Start any seeds you want for warm-weather crops and go ahead and plant another row or more of lettuce, radishes, and other cold-weather things. We may get a very short spring, and I wouldn’t want you to miss out on homegrown lettuce.
Daffodils, violets and a little bit of my blue Phlox divaricata are also blooming, and hellebores continue to bloom. The peony foliage is way up on some plants. I wish it weren’t because we are supposed to get down to 28° tonight.
While we wait for the virus to blow through the U.S., if there was one thing I would encourage you to do, it would be to get outside and garden. You have to stay home anyway. Might as well feel the sunshine on your face.
Thank you for the inspiration to go outside and get some gardening done
You are so welcome. Glad to help. ;)~~Dee
Wow! Thanks for sharing this. Such a good idea to stay home and garden! I don’t know about you guys but I am getting restless in the house. The amount of appreciation I gained for the outdoors is crazy! The littlest bit of fresh air is a complete game changer. So, I completely agree! Let’s stay home for our loved ones & garden. We are a new landscaping company in Glendale, California and love to see this kind of motivation!
I am very restless indoors. Today is a beautiful, if windy, day in Oklahoma, and I’m going outside to get some things done. Congratulations on your new company! I wish you all the best. Stay well!~~Dee
My sentiments exactly, and just what I have been doing!
It’s definitely better than staying inside. 🙂 ~~Dee
You covered it all! Love seeing all your beautiful daffodils. I have started over with everything in the new garden when the only plants are a zillion square feet of 3 vines, a spirea and a few ferns. I brought a daffodil inside today since it’s cloudy and cool after a week of rain. Be safe!
Hey Diana, I hope you get your new garden going as soon as possible. Stay well my friend.~~Dee
Good advice, Dee. As soon as my daughter’s home from overseas, I’ll feel much better. The hubby works for an “essential services” employer, so I imagine we’ll both be exposed at some point, if we haven’t been already. Praying for a miracle treatment or a speedy-as-possible vaccine. We’re all in this together. The self-quarantine as much as possible makes sense. Stay healthy! I’ll be digging in the dirt very soon, too. 🙂
Hi Beth, Bill’s company is an essential service too. I hope we aren’t exposed, but we do what we can to limit exposure. I hope your daughter made it home. It’s scary to worry about our loved ones. Hang in there. I hope your weather clears up soon.~~Dee
I get out in the garden anytime it’s not rainy or too cold. It’s been raining so much and I’m really missing my garden therapy! We widened our east facing flower bed last fall and I’ve been itching to get out and buy some flowering shrubs and cold hardy perennials to fill the area but decided with the 15 day home quarantine that I should wait, be safe and stay home. Your garden is looking so cheery with all your sweet daffodils. Love your magnolia tree too! Thankful we didn’t get a hard freeze last night!
Hi Sonia, how exciting that you widened one of your flower beds! Thank you so much for coming by and commenting. It makes me feel less alone out here. 🙂 ~~Dee
Dee,
Thank you for introducing your bees. Nice to meet them after hearing about them on your podcast. Loving putting in a new garden this spring without feeling guilty for spending so much time out there. Peace.
I think we are a couple weeks behind you weather wise…no daffs yet but they are budding up. I have been out there. More wind than sun and more clouds as well but that is fine for garden cleaning. Garden on!
Layanee, everything here is way ahead of schedule. I keep praying for no freeze. Rain and chilly temps tomorrow. Spring definitely has its ups and downs. ~~Dee
I love this post, Dee. It is the subject of my latest article for our local newspaper. There’s so many gardening tasks can be accomplished right now. I think gardeners will get through this crisis very well. P. x
It has been rainy here too Dee. A little frustrating. I don’t think I have ever been caught up on my spring cleaning so early in the season. Ha… Good advise to get out between those spring showers and do what you are able to do. I would hate to miss the first showing of the plants now rushing out in the spring warmth.
Lisa, I’m feeling much more caught up too. It’s bizarre. The garden is ahead of itself for this time of year, and I am too. ~~Dee