Getting Ready for Garden Season | Rhode Island Spring Flower & Garden Show

Late winter in New England is the height of flower show season, with shows popping up all over the east coast. As a welcome escape from our current cold weather, we recently spent an afternoon at The Rhode Island Spring Flower & Garden Show in search of tips and inspiration to get our home gardens ready. As it turned out, we were not alone. More than 32,000 people visited the show at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence to daydream about getting their hands dirty and to get a head start on making plans for this year’s garden and landscaping.

The landscape architect behind the event, Chuck Carberry gave us his tour of 26 gardens from different exhibitors throughout New England and discussed the opportunities the show offers to engage with the experts on everything from organic gardening to finding ways to encourage the next generation of gardeners. While at this year’s show, we got the chance to hear from one such expert Kennebunk, Maine-based Kerry Ann Mendez, the author of The Right-Size Flower Garden: Simplify Your Outdoor Space with Smart Design Solutions and Plant Choices. Kerry shared some of her favorite tips for editing your existing garden or planning for a new one that we’ll be keeping in mind during garden season.What Plants Stay and What  Plants Go: Replace mixed perennials with flowering shrubs, especially those that require little or no pruning. Incorporate plants that offer colorful foliage, like Heuchera ‘Electra’ and Heuchera ‘Lava Lamp’ to create interest and curb appeal without the work. Celebrate weed-smothering groundcovers like deer resistant Lepintella and Woolly Thyme.

Enjoy the Garden from Both inside and outside of the House: Take a whole new look at the locations of your plants. Are they in the primary viewing points that will give you the most pleasure?

Don’t Be Afraid to Reassess the Value of Individual Plants: Consider giving away or escorting to the compost pile plants that:

• Are disease and inspect prone
• Require staking
• Have ratty-looking foliage after flowering
• Are short-lived
• Require excessive dividing to keep in the control
• Demand a lot of water

***Yankee Magazine is a proud sponsor of The Rhode Island Spring Flower & Garden Show***