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Proctor's Garden: Caring for bulbs and groundcovers

Now is a good time to plant or transplant groundcovers.
Credit: Thinkstock by Getty

KUSA — The average last frost along the Front Range is May 10. While that's fast approaching, it's not a signal to go hog wild. Don't even think about planting tomatoes, peppers and other warm-season vegetables and annuals. The soil must warm sufficiently and night temperatures must remain reliably at least 50 degrees.

In the meantime, there's plenty to do. As your spring bulbs finish flowering, nip off the end of the faded flowers. Don't braid the leaves or roll them up and bobby pin them. Leave them alone! The leaves are solar collectors feeding the bulbs for next year. If you cut them off before they ripen, you're in trouble. The bulbs probably won't bloom next year.

Now is a good time to plant or transplant groundcovers such as creeping sedums. One of my favorites is 'Angelina,' a tough sedum that lives in small pots on my patio throughout the year. In the winter the thin leaves turn bright orange. The new spring growth is bright apple green, making for a striking contrast. By early summer the plants have turned uniformly chartreuse.

The potted plants are easily trimmed to tidy them. The cuttings can be planted elsewhere in the garden. Along the fronts of beds and borders, scratch out a small trench to plant a few cuttings about two inches deep. They'll root easily.

This sedum combines well with other perennials and does what it's supposed to do: cover ground.

Many short groundcovers bloom in spring. Beneath my crabapple is a thick tapestry of easy-care perennials. Pink lamium, variegated vinca, yellow lamiastrum, creeping phlox and bright blue brunnera carpet the soil. Everywhere you look, cheerful grape hyacinths pop up through the groundcovers.

I loathe bark mulch and do not recommend it for your gardens. Don't cover the soil with plastic and bark nuggets. Use nature's groundcovers--they're called plants.

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