2022 Spring Home and Garden

Page 4 2022 Spring Home and Garden LINCOLN DAILY NEWS April / May 2022 2022 Spring Home and Garden LINCOLN DAILY NEWS April / May 2022 Page 5 DOING MORE LESS for $$$ pring is such a perfect time to consider home and garden projects. Waking up from our long winter nap, the look, feel, smell and temperature of spring in the air invigorates us. We are inspired as the tulips and daffodils begin to bloom, the buds on trees and shrubs pop, and the grass greens up. Birds and wildlife reappear. What a perfect time to get ambitious and make something fresh and anew! Often we need a bit of direction for our home and garden initiatives. There are so many projects you can do around the house and the yard. Often we need to carefully choose where to put our money and our energy because those resources are scarce and precious. And so, in this 2022 edition of our Spring Home and Garden magazine LDN gives you some practical ideas to consider. Our articles are all written by local writers, and address both projects for the interior of your house and the great outdoors in your yard. It is our hope that you find words that are both helpful and inspiring in this online magazine. [LDN] S W hen it comes to creating an attractive lawn space, the use of perennials is a popular and wise investment. Before going any further, it would be good to explore just what is a perennial? Perennials are herbaceous plants that die down at the end of each season, but re-emerge from energy stores in roots, bulbs, tubers or corms year after year. There are a variety of perennials from the popular hostas, to peonies, iris, groundcover perennials such as bee balm, and woody plants such as lavender. If cared for properly a perennial will continue to provide a lovely landscape for many years. However, there are a few mistakes that folks make. Many think that growing a perennial is a “do it and done” gardening process where you put the plant in the ground and walk away. Not necessarily true. As the years progress, if your plants remain prosperous, they may eventually outgrow the space they are in or they may grow aggressively and smother out other nearby plants. Dividing plants and resetting them into other parts of your landscape do two important things. It allows for the expansion of your lawn décor with only time, water, and sometimes a slight soil amendment required. This saves money for the gardener while creating a lush landscape. The second and perhaps more important reason to divide, is that thinning out an overgrown area of perennials will contribute to the overall wellbeing of the original plant, keeping it healthy and lovely for years to come. As perennials grow, some may consider that the overcrowding makes the plants look fuller and prettier. For a while that may be true, but eventually growers will note the consequences of overcrowding. The University of Minnesota Extension offers some good advice about why dividing perennials is important. * Dividing or splitting a single perennial into Expand your landscape without shrinking your pocketbook CONTINUED u