Spring is when a lot of flowers and bulbs begin to emerge, but it can seem a bit cold for some gardeners to really get to work in their garden. However, if you get the work done now, your garden will be ready for spring and summer.
Getting your garden ready for spring should be fun, not a chore. Use these tips to give your garden a spring clean and get it ready for a new year.
The Big Clean Up
Tidying up the garden can seem like a never-ending job, but if you do it regularly, it shouldn’t take long.
When you spring clean the garden, collect up any dead leaves or stalks from the ground. These should be cleared before they allow bacteria to grow and infect your plants, which would be a bad start to the growing season.
If you have a patio or a deck, give this a good clean too. A sweep and a clean with water should do the job. If you use cleaning products, protect your plants.
Care For Your Lawn
Spring is a good time to feed and rake your lawn. This gets rid of any debris and dead grass cuttings, so the grass can breathe and not become waterlogged. You could also use the time to level any uneven parts of the lawn and add new grass seed to any patchy areas.
Reduce, Reuse, Compost
A bonus of clearing away all the organic matter from the garden is that you can put a lot of it into the compost pile. In the spring, turn over the compost pile. It’s been working away all through the winter, and the bottom layer should now be a good mulch ready to spread over your flower beds. If you have too much compost, see if a neighbor could make some use of some.
Get The Kitchen Garden Ready
If you like growing your own food, spring is the right time to start ordering your seeds. Choose some seeds for vegetables that can be sown undercover now.
If you have a greenhouse or a windowsill with plenty of room, you can get your containers ready for propagating. Clean up any old pots you have lying around, or go you can make your own containers out of newspaper, empty yogurt pots, or old egg boxes.
Get A Trim
A lot of plants will benefit from some care to get them prepared for the Spring. Depending on the plant, this might be re-potting them, moving them to a more sheltered part of the garden, or trimming back the stems to encourage some new growth. Book tree removal to cut back low branches or to pull up any trees that are getting too close to the house.
If you have plants like roses or a buddleia, these will need to be pruned in the spring, once the frosts are over. To get ready for this, take some time in advance to go through the garden and make a note of which plants will need a prune when the frosts have passed. This will save you some time later on.
