Preparing Your Spring Garden Now | It’s Never Too Early!

Preparing Your Spring Garden Now | It’s Never Too Early! Read more on: http://ift.tt/1nr27gs

Spring and summer will be here before you know it! For some gardeners, the most exciting part of the spring and summer months are their gardens! Fresh flowers and vegetables – there’s nothing like the feeling of this accomplishment in your spring garden!

There is so much preparation that goes into gardening, some of which you can actually start on now. It’ll make the spring and summer months a lot less hectic and it will give you more time in the garden later on!

Here are some things you can start doing now for your spring garden!

Preparing Your Spring Garden

Ordering Summer Flowering Bulbs and Seeds

Summer flowering bulbs can be planted in early spring for a colorful summer display.

Most summer bloomers such as gladioli, calla lilies, dahlias, tuberous begonias, and crocosmias love warm soil and sun. If you garden in a mild climate (Zones 8 to 10), you can plant these bulbs in the early spring and expect flowers by summer.

If you garden in a colder area, early spring planting isn’t feasible. Instead, wait until late spring or early summer.

Clearing Up Garden Beds and Borders

Remove leaves and other debris from all garden beds, lawns, and ponds. Is is good idea to cut back the old dead growth of deciduous grasses and herbaceous perennials. If the soil is workable, you can dig a 5cm layer of organic matter such as well-rotted manure, compost, or recycled green waste into empty garden borders.

Checking For Garden Pests

Removing hibernating pests now can save a lot of trouble come spring and summer! Take a closer look at the crowns of your perennial plants and you may find slugs, snails, and aphid colonies sheltering for the winter.

Removing Weeds

If you have found that patches of weeds are beginning to grow in your garden, remove them and dispose of them carefully. Pulling or tearing at certain weeds such as couch grass can cause the roots to spread, so be sure to dig them out using a trowel.

Do not place the weeds in a compost pile, as you will not want to accidentally spread the seeds around your garden. Once the weeds are clear, do a thorough clean up by removing leaves and other debris from the garden beds and borders.

Covering Soil With Compost

Cover bare soil with 3-6 inches with compost (organic matter). Compost acts as a slow release fertilizer and provides much needed nutrients to the soil and plants to keep them healthy.

Avoid artificial and chemical fertilizers as they do not benefit the soil long term. If you do not have a compost pile – no worries! We will cover that in just a moment.

Repairing Fences, Gates, and Trellis

Even though it’s cold outside, this is the perfect time to repair your fences, gates, and trellis. Any broken structures are best fixed now so you have more time to spend in your garden during the spring and summer. If possible, treat your wooden garden structures with a wood preservative during the dry periods.

Clean Your Gardening Tools

Give your gardening tools and good clean and sharpen!

Caring for your gardening tools not only preserves them, it helps prevent the spread of any potential bacteria that can transfer to your garden.

Sharpening your tools will improve their performance which makes them easier to work with and will provide cleaner pruning cuts.

Creating a Compost Area

This could simply be a ready-made compost bin or you could build a compost bin yourself using spare bits of wood. Not only will you have somewhere to put your garden waste, but your plants will benefit from the rich compost created when it all breaks down.

Make sure you have a good mixture of grass clippings, vegetable peelings, paper, and wood prunings. To help the process along you’ll need to turn your compost with a garden fork each month to keep it aerated.

On more information on composting, check out this great article from us here at Survival Life: How to Make Compost | DIY Composting.

Clean The Greenhouse

Wash your greenhouse before spring arrives. Before long your greenhouse will be home to trays of seedlings and cuttings.

Sweep out any plant debris. Disinfect the floors and all glass areas as overwintering pests and disease can survive in the smallest of nooks and crannies. Also, wash all pots and seed trays to help prevent spread of any potential disease to your young plants.

Make sure to ventilate your greenhouse well over the next couple of days so it dries thoroughly!

Give these spring garden preparation techniques a try and before you know it, everything will be coming up roses!

What steps do you take to prepare your garden for spring and summer? Tell us in the comment section below.

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