5 Tips to Prepare Your Garden for Planting
If you are a gardener, nothing makes you feel like another year has begun quite like getting out into the dirt and getting things ready for another year of growing and harvesting. However, you don’t need to wait until the ground is ready to receive your seedlings to begin preparations. There are many things you can do right now to prepare your garden for the upcoming planting season. Here are a few tips to start now in your garden preparation:
1. Clean out your garden
Take a look around. No doubt fallen leaves have accumulated into piles under shrubs, up against fencing and in the corners of raised planting beds. Now is a good time to get outside and get rid of the yard debris that has been piling up since you hung up your trowel last season. If you compost, these gatherings are a perfect addition.
2. Do some pruning
While you’re busy removing things, go ahead and tend to whatever pruning needs there may be among your trees and shrubs. Now, before the spring buds hide what’s underneath is a good time to identify and trim back dead or damaged branches. Fruit trees may be pruned. So, too, may bushy shrubs like forsythia and azalea. Roses may also be cut back now. And, should you be considering moving a shrub from one part of the yard to another – now is the time to make the move. Be sure to dig up the entire root ball and provide rich, loose soil and lots of fertilizer to help ease the trauma.
3. Make repairs
Another step to prepare your garden is to give it a critical eye for any needed repairs. If you use raised planting beds, are any of the sides bowed or rotting? Replace them now. This is also the right time to look over your trellises to see if they need a little tender loving care.
4. Spread a little love
It might be too soon to start turning your soil, but that doesn’t mean it’s too soon to start spreading some love over the ground. You may use manure or a rich layer of mulch. Just think of it as frosting on a cake. You don’t have to turn this layer into the dirt, just let the elements leach the goodness into the soil for a few weeks before you start digging in.
5. Prepare your garden tools
Before you press them into service, take inventory of your tools and accessories. Do you have everything you’ll need? Are they all in good condition? Don’t forget to have a supply of plant markers on hand and at the ready.
Kincaid Plant Markers are the best you can buy. They will help you keep your spring plantings labeled and will make your garden look organized and beautiful. Order yours today and be prepared for another year.
