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Double digit temperatures have gardeners anxious

It’s okay to clean up your lawn now

Mar 18, 2021 | 12:02 PM

MEDICINE HAT — The sound of lawnmowers should soon begin to fill the air in Medicine Hat and area, as people get eager to start their spring yard work.

The grass still looks brown and lifeless, but the key to knowing when to start working on your yard, is the moisture level of the soil, and the temperature.

Joyce Swaren with Blondie’s Gift and Garden Centre says all signs point toward a green light for people to get to work now.

“The temperatures have been really awesome lately, so if they stay like that and people want to get out and aerate and do all that kind of thing, even seeding, then that’s fine” says Swaren.

Even if the weather does get nasty again, Swaren says it won’t hurt the lawn because it won’t start to germinate just yet.

Application of dormant oil to smother pests that have overwintered on trees and bushes is also likely ok to begin, as long as daytime temperatures remain around 10 degrees.

But Swaren advises not to attempt to wake up perennials; she says they will wake up themselves as the days get warmer.

People are anxious to plant their trees and shrubs, but Swaren says that will have to wait until mid April, when supplies begin to arrive.