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Proctor's Garden: Green light to garden

It's time to get back on your perennials. You can use the debris to enrich your soil.

DENVER — Clean up your beds and borders. Almost all perennials can be cut back now. New growth can emerge. 

Don't get too tidy. Leave small debris and leaves in place. As they decompose they will enrich your soil. 

Add the material you cut back to your compost pile. Chop it first; it will break down faster. If you don't have a compost pile, you can compost in place in your pots.

Add chopped debris to the bottom of your pots before you add soil. In a large pot, you can fill them halfway up with this debris and leaves. This saves money on potting soil. The debris will break down inside the pot and provide additional nutrients for your plants. 

Credit: KUSA

If you planted bulbs in pots last fall and brought them outside, consider sinking the plastic pots they're growing in into a larger, more decorative pot.

Complement them with cool-season annuals such as pansies, primroses, ornamental kale, linaria, and wallflowers. When the tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths have finished blooming, simply lift them out. Later on, they can be replaced with warm season such as geraniums. The potted bulbs can be transplanted into the garden to bloom again next year. 

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