Sprucing up for spring: aerate your lawn and attack those weeds | The Compleat Home Gardener
Published 2:00 pm Friday, March 27, 2026
The fourth week of March is the time to mow and edge the lawn and to consider if aerating would be a good investment.
Aerating is poking holes or removing plugs from the lawn to allow air and water to pass through the top layer of thatch and to loosen up compacted soil.
If your lawn drains well with no low, wet spots you can safely aerate. Wait another month or so for the soil to dry out if your lawn soil is still soft and full of moisture. Not all lawns need aerating. If rain water drains quickly and your grass grows thick and healthy you can skip aeration.
The end of March is also a good time to gather the seeds of plants you plan to grow this summer, to remove any winter ravished or dead brown plants from container gardens and most importantly to get control of weeds before they bloom and go to seed.
Q. I have a small, round weed with white flowers that is seeding all over my yard. When I get close to pull it up, it shoots seeds right into my face! Please help! S.W. Buckley
A. Sounds like you are hosting the prolific shot weed, also called bittercress, or pop weed or spit weed but properly known as Cardamine hirsute. This edible but rather bitter weed is much loved by chickens but scorned by tidy gardeners as it thrives in cool weather, popping up as early as January in Western Washington gardens. The solution is right at your fingertips. It pulls easily with a shallow root system. Wear goggles or glasses to protect your eyes and get pulling! If that seems daunting, try a thick mulch layered on top of the shot weed or a hoe and rake to remove them from your garden beds. Follow weed removal with a mulch to block the many seeds in the soil you left behind. Don’t give up. The birds will continue to drop shot weed into your garden (this is not a native weed, it hitchhiked from Europe) but with an eagle eye and persistence you can take aim and fire away to win the battle of the shot weed.
Q. How long do snapdragons live? I planted some in my container gardens last spring and it looks like they survived the winter. Can I cut these back a bit and let them grow again? R.K. Tacoma
A. Yes! The advantage of our mild winter in Western Washington is that many marginally hardy plants such as snapdragons, geraniums, abutilon and cordyline all survived and will make an encore performance this summer in your garden. Remove dead or brown parts of the plants, fertilize and celebrate your good luck by trying some more new plants in your garden this summer.
Q. I have some hellebores in my garden that are blooming well. I heard you speak at the NWFG show about pruning off the old leaves of my hellebores during the winter. Well, I confess I never did that. Should I prune off the hellebore foliage now that I see some leaves are turning black? P.O., Olympia
A. Yes, any hellebore that shows signs of disease with black spots or patches on the foliage or leaf stems should be cut close to the base of the plant. The bacteria and fungal infections on the leaves in the spring can spread to the flowers and ruin your heavenly hellebores. Another tip is to add a fresh layer of mulch around the base of the hellebores after you remove diseased leaves. This will help to seal any disease spores into the soil rather than be splashed back up onto the plant from rain showers.
Hellebore growing tip: Do not divide or transplant hellebores as they resent disturbance of their thick and fleshy roots.
Q. What was the hellebore you mentioned in a talk that has green flowers and survives in full sun in rocky soil? G., Seattle
A. The green flowering hellebore is called the Corsican hellebore or Hellebore argutifolius. This hellebore is evergreen and taller than other hellebores but the garden gossip from my own garden is that it starts to decline after five or six years but leaves lots of seedlings behind that sprout up in unexpected but welcome spots. This more drought resistant variety is not as easy to find at local nurseries as the more common hellebore and does not like to be transplanted so if you see one potted up for sale at a garden club or master gardener plant sale – buy it!
Marianne Binetti has a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and is the author of “Easy Answers for Great Gardens” and several other books. For answers to gardening questions, visit plantersplace.com and click “As The Expert”. Copyright for this column owned by Marianne Binetti. For more gardening information, she can be reached at her website, www.binettigarden.com.
