9 Things to Do to Prepare Your Garden for Spring
By Louis Nguyen
Author bio: Louis Nguyen is an article writer. After a long time with the COVID-19 epidemic, he spent time researching and setting up his small garden.
Spring will come soon, and you will be relatively busy with many gardening tasks. Spring is also the season when all kinds of trees, flowers, and vegetables sprout after the winter break. They will bring bountiful crops of excellent quality. Which makes gardeners feel the urge to prepare the perfect spring garden.
So why not take advantage of the quiet wintertime to start a checklist of things to prepare for a new year of gardening with more exciting and unique things? You will be surprised by what you gain in the new year, won't you?
Here are the nine most important things to consider as you plan your spring garden. I'm pretty sure you'll find something interesting and relevant to you.
What plants will be grown in the garden, and how will they be cared for?
If you've been gardening before, you probably already have a list of your family's favorite vegetables. It comes with old seeds you saved after the previous harvest season. So what's the next job?
Challenge yourself with a few newer, harder-to-grow vegetables that bring great flavor to your family's dishes. For example, for Asian vegetables, start researching how to plant and care for them.
The most exciting thing about gardening is discovering and challenging yourself with lots of new things.
Along with this, check the old seeds for mold or damage. If so, proceed to remove damaged seeds and place new ones to get them ready for spring.
If you're just starting out in gardening, learn how to grow these simple and easy-to-grow vegetables to get started. They can also be foods that are used every day in family meals.
Spring is a pretty good time to start learning about gardening, so if you love it, start now.
There are many types of vegetables that take several months to harvest, and some species that take only a few weeks to harvest. If you want to have food in your raised garden bed all year. Let's proceed to alternately plant short- and long-term vegetables with each other. You both have more acreage to grow and harvest all year.
To make the garden look neater and more beautiful. Try out ways to help renovate the garden, or add a few rest areas in the garden to enjoy the fruits of your labor. They will stimulate your gardening motivation.
Also read: The Best Time To Plant Vegetables in the Spring.
Essential tools for gardening
The next job will be to check on the necessary tools for gardening. What tools did you have before? Clean, repair, and re-sharpen tools before gardening. You won't know for sure if they have harmful bacteria or fungi inside. Furthermore, repairing and re-sharpening tools make your work more efficient and less laborious. Or do you want to add other tools to make your gardening work simpler and lighter? If so, start listing gardening tools. They can be one of the following:
- Metal raised garden beds to increase the garden bed's life, make it lightweight, and easy to move if necessary.
- Smart sprinkler. Help you control the process of supplying water to your garden with just your phone. It will help if you are busy at work. Or go on a business trip or a long trip without someone to take care of the garden.
- Tools for tilling and loosening the soil. Helps you to weed and loosen the soil easily.
- And a variety of other tools to assist you in making the job easier.
Inspect and restore the garden.
After a long winter, your garden will have many changes. Let's check the area of security fences, gates, etc. to see if they are damaged. If so, do repairs or replacements to make sure the garden is ready for the spring crop. Continue to check for mold or moss around the fence. Carry out the cleaning and repainting of wooden fences on dry days. If you have plans to add new functions to the garden, Let's implement them at this stage.
Prepare the seed nursery.
If you already have a greenhouse, do some cleaning and sanitizing to get it ready for seeding. Use cleaners or disinfectants to remove algae and moss inside and outside the greenhouse. It is best to choose natural disinfectants to ensure they do not affect you, the soil, or the water source of your garden.
Then proceed to open the greenhouse door for ventilation for a few dry days.
Next, it is necessary to clean and remove pathogens from the seed tray or pot.
Prepare nutrient soil; it is best to buy prepackaged organic nutrient soil at seed stores. If you are more confident about your ability to mix and compost, you can prepare your own potting soil for the seeding process.
Depending on the time and type of seed, conduct seed germination to get ready for spring planting. Especially those that take the longest.
Also read: How to Start Seeds - Easy Seed in Spring.
Clean up your garden.
Besides the vegetable area, your garden may also have other large flowers or plants. Remove any dry plants and prune them neatly. To make the garden airy, the seedlings will also receive the right light source to grow.
Cut the grass around your garden path or outdoor patio area. Clean the path, especially if there is moss attached. Besides, you can plan to plant some new plants or flowers in the garden.
Kill weeds and insects harmful to the garden.
When the weather has started to get warmer, equip your tools and proceed to destroy weeds and other harmful insects in the garden. The best way is to use a tiller to a depth of 6–8 inches (if you're using a flower bed, you'll be digging to the bottom of them) to check for any pests that are wintering.
Check every nook and cranny of the garden to see if there are any swarms of aphids or snails that are wintering. especially the vegetable garden beds. Remove weeds and look for white weevil larvae that may be on the grass. Remove them as far as possible from the garden.
Examine and renovate the land.
Early spring is an ideal time for soil testing and reclamation work. If you are using the no-till method, you can skip this step. If you choose to use cover crops to improve the soil naturally and with less effort. Then you can start planting them a few weeks before the intended date of planting the sapling. This is the time for them to grow and renovate the soil in your garden. Once mature, proceed to harvest and compost to provide a more source of nutrients for your crop.
You also need to do a soil pH and moisture test. See what they are currently lacking and what elements need to be added to create the best environment for the plants to grow. In particular, you need to check that your soil is not too compacted (especially muddy soil). Because the soil is compacted, air will not be able to circulate and water will be trapped, causing the plant to die. If so, add more rock to create more space for the roots to breathe.
Plan to compost and add nutrients to the soil
Parallel to the process of soil improvement is the addition of nutrients to the soil. To create a favorable environment for organisms in the soil to grow and create nutrients for plants to grow. If you are not using the cover crop improvement method, It is imperative that you prepare the right layer of compost for the type of soil in your garden.
Build a composting area for old leaves or straw and manure so that it is always ready to be added at each time of plant growth. Compost is the nutrient that supports the growth of the garden.
But each type of vegetable and tuber will have different nutritional needs. Carefully read the growing instructions on the seed packaging to calculate the right amount of compost.
If you do not know how to compost or make compost, you can refer to the previous articles in Vegega articles.
