Shrubs for Your Garden
Adding shrubs to your dream garden will not only help beautify the garden, but add value and privacy to your property, and berries growing on the shrubs will also attract birds.
You should only plant bare-root shrubs in the late fall or early spring, but container-grown or balled-and-burlapped shrubs may be planted any time of the year, except when the ground is frozen. Planting should only be done in well-draining soil. A slow-release fertilizer added into the soil backfill at planting time will be beneficial to the shrub's growth. Two to three inches of mulch placed around the shrub will reduce evaporation of water, and limit the growth of weeds and grass around the plants.
As a rule, shrubs require watering once a week. The best type of watering is heavy watering done slowly with a hose.
Pruning will be important to the growth and beauty of your shrubs. Prune in order to train the plant, to maintain plant health, to improve quality of flowers, fruit, foliage or stems, and to restrict growth. When to prune is extremely important, and shrubs should only be pruned when dormant. Shrubs that flower in the spring should only be pruned after the flowers fade, but shrubs that flower later in the summer should only be pruned in early spring. Most shrubs will require the removal of dead and/or crossing branches, but occasional thinning is also going to be a necessity. By removing old branches down to the ground, the center of the shrub is opened up to sunlight, promoting new branch growth and leaf production. |
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