While waiting for spring…

Does summer still seem a distant dream? Is spring playing coy in your back yard? Don’t despair — even if it’s still too soon to put the lawn furniture out and plant your tomatoes, there’s plenty you can do to get out in the garden.

Even though those late-winter rains are keeping your garden beds soggy, and you know it’s too soon to plant, we all feel that urge to get out there in the back yard. While your garden center may tell you to keep the lettuce starts inside, gardening experts suggest some ways to scratch that gardening itch.

Master gardener Paul James knows that itch. “I may get a little too eager every now and then,” he says. But even if you can’t plant yet, and it would be silly to break out the lawn mower, James has a to-do list of important garden chores to get done before the season starts.

Start with mulch in garden beds and around trees and shrubs. All that nice fresh wood chip or mulch that looked so good last summer is probably a little bedraggled after the winter. Some may have started to rot into the soil, or maybe the rain and run-off has left bare spots. Fluff up old mulch with a rake, and add new to a depth of at least 2-4 inches.

Did you never get around to trimming shrubs and pruning your trees last fall? Well, it’s not too late. Before they start to bud, look at your plantings carefully — and from different angles — to decide what kind of shape you want them to be. Go slow, take a few days and trim a little at a time.

Map your garden beds. Maybe you forgot to draw a map when you planted bulbs last fall, or you lost it. Now’s the time, as early-bloomers start to come up: sketch where the sprouts are in the garden so you’ll know where to put your annuals and perennials without damaging bulbs as those plants fade.

There’s plenty more to do to get ready for the real spring. It feels great after the winter to get out and get started. Breathe the air and smell the soil. It’s almost spring, and there are chores to do, even if you can’t plant.

Your garden will thank you for it — sooner than you think!