It’s mid February 2021, and snow is now covering the ground, and is due during the next several days in Massachusetts. Will there still be snow on the ground in early March? Possibly.

• Gardening tools that haven’t been cleaned can be washed and sterilized with 70% Isopropyl Alcohol. And, oiled with WD-40.

• Sharpen your pruning tools, shovel blades, garden bed edger’s and mower blades with a # 10 mill bastard file, or take them to a professional tool sharpener. You can purchase the metal file from your local hardware store or woodworking shop.

• If you left leaves as a ground mulch last fall, just move the leaves away from any spring bulbs/plants beginning to sprout, but keep the remaining leaves on the ground as worms, small insects and microorganisms have overwintered within these leaves.

• Remove standard winter mulch (woody shredded bark) when the soil has thawed from winter cold. Insects don’t typically live within these mulch layers. Apply, and dig in a two to three inch layer of compost to your perennial and shrub garden beds to amend the soil.

• Fertilize shrubs and trees with organic fertilizer (if there’s no snow on the ground; otherwise wait until the snow has thoroughly melted before application). Use Holly Tone for acidic loving plants, Plant Tone for alkaline loving plants, and Rose Tone for roses.

• Contact gardening and lawn care professionals to get scheduled into their calendar as spring is a busy season for them

• Pots used for planting need to be free of mold and fungus. If you didn’t clean your pots in the fall, soak and sterilize them for 10 minutes in 1 part bleach mixed into 9 parts water. Scrub them inside and out until they are clean, and then rinse them thoroughly with water.

• Draw up a plan for your vegetable garden so that this year’s crops will be rotated, and not planted in the same place as last year.

• Join a garden club or take a gardening class on-line to get new ideas and meet other gardeners. NOTE: Due to Covid 19 pandemic, garden clubs in the Boston area are meeting virtually via Zoom or Skype.

Click on this link – https://somervillegardenclub.org/ and/or the link: Sign-up today to join the Somerville Garden Club!

Contact: https://SunandShadeGardening.com/

Garden tasks for March, spring garden clean up, cleaning garden tools, gardeners near Somerville