Ah, the smell of damp compost, the sound of the birds chirping, and the slow melting of the winter’s snow, this can only mean one thing: Spring is tantalizingly close!!
The Quickening Spring
Spring is often a time that catches many new gardeners off-guard. The season suddenly seems to turn from cold, wet, and miserable to sunny and alive with energy.
To make sure you don’t get caught out when the quickening season comes, follow these six top tips to get your garden ready for spring and ready to grow a great variety of flowers, fruit, and veg all year round.
Repair Any Fences or Screens
When spring kicks in, you probably find your time is taken up tending to plants, weeding, and doing endless rounds of slug hunting, so don’t waste time now procrastinating!
Get on with fixing fences, putting up garden screening where it’s needed, and weatherproofing wood when you get warm enough, dry days.
Mulch the Flowerbeds
Mulch is nature’s cure-all! A good leaf mulch or decent compost is just what the garden doctor ordered; make sure you spread a layer over your beds (vegetable or flower beds) and leave it on top over the winter.
This will help keep the weed growth to a minimum and give your soil the added nutrients it needs. Dig it in when you’re ready to start planting.
Sharpen and Tighten Your Tools
On rainy days it can be a bit miserable sitting indoors wishing you were outdoors, but therein lying a good opportunity to do a bit of maintenance.
Take a look at all of your garden tools, sharpen anything that needs sharpening, oil anything that needs oiling, and tighten any screws that may have come loose over the year.
Tidy Your Shed and Greenhouse
Are you a messy gardener? Now is the time to fix that by tidying that shed and greenhouse ready for the next season. This is an especially good job if it’s raining outside!
Neaten Borders or Make Raised Beds
When spring kicks in and everything starts growing, things can quickly get out of hand if you haven’t done the prep work beforehand.
On warmer and dryer days, get outside and neaten up those borders, making sure to pull any weeds and sort out the fences. If you’re going to be using raised beds, now is a good time to build them and fill them with the right amount of soil mix.
Organize Seeds for The Year
This is a great job for January as there’s not usually a lot of planting to be done at the beginning of January, but many gardeners are itching to get out!
Every gardener has their own way of organizing seeds ready to be planted, but the simple zip lock bags with month stickers are always a winner.
To take this one step further, be sure to mark on your bags which seeds need to be planted indoors/in the greenhouse and which seeds can be sown directly into the ground each month.
