Spring is a season of renewal and life, and nowhere can that renewal be showcased more naturally than in your garden. It is essential to take the right steps to prepare your spring garden in order to give your flowers, plants, and shrubs the best chance for a bountiful and healthy spring growing season. The following guide will help you understand how to prepare for your spring garden in the upcoming season.
Step One: Remove all debris
The first step in preparing for your beautiful spring garden is to remove all debris. Debris can include dead plants or dead organic matter; old mulch; weeds; branches or twigs; and anything else that isn’t fresh soil or living organic matter. You may be able to reuse dead organic matter as compost if you’d like to avoid waste. Make sure to burn your weeds or otherwise completely remove them from the soil, otherwise they will likely invade your spring garden.
Step Two: Get pruning
Pruning is essential in the springtime if you have any trees or shrubs. Early spring is the best season to prune back branches since you can help give the plant a better shape before it comes fully out of winter dormancy. If you have flowering dogwood, honeysuckle, crepe myrtle, roses, or wisteria, these are ideal choices for pruning in this particular region.
Step Three: Freshen your soil
Old soil should be turned and raked thoroughly in the early spring before any plants have had a chance to sprout. Add fresh soil in the mix in order to give your garden, flower beds, and plant beds the best starting point for the upcoming seasons. Make sure that you have completely removed debris, especially weeds before you turn the soil.
Step Four: Make any necessary repairs or installations
If you’re going to create new flower beds or fences in a new space in your garden, now is the time to have them installed. If you have existing fences, flower beds, growing trellises, stakes, or any other physical elements in your garden, take the time to inspect and–if necessary–make repairs.
Step Five: Start your compost pile
Compost will make great fertilizer for the later spring and summer months. You can prepare for your spring garden by starting a compost pile with the dead organic matter you’ve collected during the clean-up process. The earlier you start working on compost, the better; this will help the organic matter break down into the compost, adding to its overall value.
Step Six: Give your garden shed or supplies a once-over
Finally, make sure that you give your garden shed, or supplies if you don’t keep them in a dedicated shed, a once-over during the early spring. Clean and sharpen your tools so that they’ll be ready for use as soon as you need them; make sure all of your supplies are properly organized and stored; and, if necessary, make any repairs to the shed to keep it in top shape.
If you want to prepare for your spring garden, don’t forget the above steps.
