Now is the time to clean out your birdhouses and get them ready to put back out. In the recent warm weeks, I have had some birds staking out spots and starting to gather nest-making materials. I collect string, thread, dryer vent fluff, yarn, ribbon, etc. all winter in a potato sack or a fruit bag so that I am ready with nesting materials as soon as I spy them in any of their favorite places. I like to put in a few pieces of white or light-colored ribbons or cotton balls so the nests are easier to spot once the parents lay their eggs. Make sure you also place your basket of nesting materials in a somewhat covered space so they stay dry. Make sure that you get your hummingbird feeders clean as well. I use vinegar and water and an old toothbrush to clean mine. Rinse thoroughly. I don’t usually fill my hummingbird feeders and put them out until I see my first hummingbird. And it is still a little early for them to head back. This is the right time of year to offer oranges to fruit-eating birds such as orioles, tanagers, and buntings.

You should have trimmed your spring flowering shrubs, like lilacs and forsythia, last year after they bloomed. If you did not, don’t trim them now. Wait until after they bloom now. Before it gets warm, prune your SUMMER flowering trees and shrubs (not your SPRING flowering …wait until they are done blooming). It is too early to uncover your spring flowering plants as well. Wait until we are past the last frost which will be closer to May 1st or even the first week of May. If the flowers have buds, the frost will kill this year’s blooms. If they don’t, they will probably live. A scattering of leaves will protect the plant even if the buds don’t make it. 

Check out the date for Arbor Day and plan to plant a tree… Make it a family affair. As a nation, we have cut down a great number of trees. Trees use the carbon dioxide we breathe out to live and give us fresh oxygen to breathe in. Without trees, green plants, and sunshine for photosynthesis we would not survive. This is also the time to transplant house plants, put them in fresh soil, and begin feeding them for their growing season.