By Steve Cornelius
The chilly winter temperatures have finally started to give way to more sunshine and springtime weather . And when the temperatures get warmer , more people have a tendency to migrate out of the indoors and start enjoying more time outside of their homes .
And once outdoors , there is nothing more pleasing than to be surrounded by beautiful flowers and fresh green landscape .
After record low temperatures that dipped well below zero degrees , outdoor plants and landscaping will need some extra loving care this spring .
“ When we get minus-10 temperatures and minus-20 wind chills , which we had , it has an effect on plants like it may have done before ,” stated Will Lynn , owner of Ashley ’ s Garden Garden Center . “ They got to a point where they got damaged . So this year they need to do more fertilizing and trimming , which is going to have to take a lot of the damage off and allow some new growth . Evergreens are not necessarily supposed to shed , but when they shed it ’ s because they have stress to a point , but they ’ re not dead . They have stress to a point where you almost are going to have to cut back and allow new growth .
“ Some residential people will always do that ,” Lynn stated . “ But now commercial contractors will almost have to just replace and move on . A lot of times with the cold we ’ ve had this year , a good thing to do this late March is to fertilize and some light trimming .
“ For things that have got damaged through this winter that ’ s always a good first start before you start replacing shrubs ,” Lynn added . “ But then come April , some things with the frost and stuff may need to be replaced . You would not plant it though out in your yard until probably closer to May , just because of the frost .”
Ashley Garden Center , located 235 Enterprise Dr ., carries a wide selection of trees , shrubs and other landscaping supplies . On top of a large selection of colorful plants , Ashley Gardens carries bulk mulch , pavers and edgers .
Spring
Gardening
“ What we ’ re known for is just what we ’ ve always been known for is our plants ,” Lynn stated . “ We sell stone , we sell mulch , we sell pavers , but we ’ re one of your parts here in the community where we ’ re always wholesale and deal with contractors a lot . Our residential buyers can come in here that don ’ t know anything about plants . They can go to Lowe ’ s and read a tag , but when they come here they are given the benefit of our expertise . We grow a lot of our own things . We grow a lot of our shrubs in Kentucky ’ s kind of weather climate . Our plants are not coming out or Florida or some other out-of-town climate . Our plants are toughened a little bit here with our temperature zones .
“ We get a lot of people that want us to do the landscape , but I sell to over 35 of accounts that I have on file . And so don ’ t get me wrong , we always do that , but we ’ re always pushing our accounts ,” Lynn stated . “ We can kind of help with plants and stuff , but I don ’ t really want to advertise that . Most of the time , if you walk in on our lot , you ’ re here to buy something or someone ’ s word of mouth .”
If you are interested in a more hands-on gardening experience , Glory Gardens and Greenhouse is the place to go to . Located on 2015 Old Bull Road in Eubank , Glory Gardens grows almost every kind of plant imaginable , plus a large selection of vegetable seedlings for your own home garden .
“ We are an on-farm market here in Eubank ,” stated Glory Gardens & Greenhouse owner Ashley DeBord . “ And we do thousands of hanging baskets . We do perennial flowers , we have herbs , ferns , and succulent . s However , our biggest selling item by far is vegetable plants , and we have over 28 varieties of tomato plants .
“ Our vegetable plants are in all different stages , but most of them are ready to set in the ground in the spring ,” DeBord stated . “ When a home gardener comes to the greenhouses , their plants are ready to put out into the garden in May . So the bulk of our customers are in May and June . We do a lot of
March 2023 SEKY - Life in Southeast Kentucky • 7