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Weaverville NC

Things To Do Outside During the Global Pandemic

Hibu Websites • April 6, 2020

When you can't go out, go outside!

Coronavirus has curtailed many of our usual activities, leaving a lot of people with the “there’s-nothing-to-do” blues. But the crisis shouldn't keep you inside and away from your yard and garden. These days at home are a great opportunity for getting your hands dirty and reconnecting with your yard and garden. 

What can you do?

I'm so glad you asked! You can...

Get out of the weeds.

Spring is the perfect time to pull weeds. Soft, moist soil makes pulling them out very easy. Manual weeding is best since it avoids all sorts of chemicals and herbicides. For best results, pull out the entire root system.

Spread new blankets on your beds. 

It's a great time to mulch! After pulling the existing weeds, adding a 3” layer of mulch in your flower beds and under shrubs will help keep weeds at bay during the spring and summer. 

For small projects, mulch can be purchased by the bag. The big home improvement centers typically have a wide variety of bagged mulch. For larger projects, ordering mulch in bulk will save time and money. Locally, Asheville Mulch Yard and The Longest Yard are both open for business. You can have a load delivered and use it a little at a time or all at once.

You'll find good mulch advice at this link.

Restore an antique.

Smart gardeners know that compacted soil and other organic matter makes it darn near impossible to have beautiful turf. If your yard suffers from weed creep or bare spots, ask yourself how long it has been since your grass was aerated or dethatched. Your old yard may need some rejuvenation.

Spring is the very best season for lawn aeration, dethatching, fertilizing, and overseeding. We rent a variety of machines for these purposes, including one of our most recent acquisitions––the Stringer Quad-Aer 3000 aerator/seeder. This machine is amazingly fast, and it aerates and overseeds your yard in a single pass.  

Give us a call for advice on how to treat your particular yard and the equipment you will need to do it. Read more about lawn cultivation and best practices for our specific region here and here
Get grounded.

Spring is a great time to plant new trees and shrubs in your landscape. You can select from an endless array of bare root, containerized, or ball and burlap plants. Plants are available at home improvement warehouses, but they are not always healthy, they are rarely grown locally, and they are sometimes not appropriate to local conditions. In order to make sure the plant you buy is the best plant possible, shop at a local garden center. Area favorite, B. B. Barns is open and taking online and telephone orders. 

Find tips for successfully planting trees or shrubs that last in NC here

Go for a buzz cut.

Trim and prune existing trees and shrubs. Most shrubs that are not blooming can be pruned now; and there is still time to prune roses, if you have them. 

The blog of the Extension Master Gardener™ Volunteers of Buncombe County has a great deal of information specific to our region. It’s a great place to explore the possibilities. 

Here's to many happy and healthy hours of landscaping and gardening, everyone!
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