5 Simple Ways To Get Your Garden Ready for Spring

With spring exactly a month away (it officially starts on March 20), as a gardener and food advocate, my thoughts are naturally turning to food and getting my garden ready for spring. I am not unusual in this regard. The beginning of spring has long been associated with food. In fact, it was celebrated by ancient cultures because they knew that it signaled a return of their food supply.

So, if you are thinking about growing your own food and wonder where to start, here are some simple, yet important things you can do to get your garden ready.

Before you plant, and regardless of whether you live in sunny So Cal like I do, or a colder climate, the first and possibly most important spring garden task is clean-up, because how well you clean up the garden now determines the kind of garden you will have throughout the spring and summer.

You may wonder if there’s a good reason to clean up other than aesthetics. The answer is yes, because keeping the garden clean is key to reducing insect and disease problems for the season.

Ensure a thorough job by cleaning up perennial beds and borders, cut down dead flowers, dig up and remove diseased plants, and clean up any leaves and stems. If you have an edible garden and/or fruit trees, clean up any fruit that has fallen. Any debris left in the garden over winter can cause diseases to enter the soil and appear in the spring.

After you clean up, and before you plant, it’s time to amend (or feed) the soil. Healthy soil makes healthy plants and lots of flowers and fruit. To make soil amendment easier, till the soil to loosen it up. It also helps you get the weeds and weed seeds out now so that later it will be easier to keep the soil bed weed-free.

Tilling the soil also helps it dry out and warm up quicker in the spring. This will let you take advantage of early spring and plant cool season crops .

Once the soil is tilled, make sure you feed it with lots of compost so plant roots will grow well and top it off with a good layer of mulch.

You should also clean up your gardening tools and have your shears, pruners, and mowers sharpened so your tools will be ready with the first burst of spring.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Angela N.

2:56PM PDT on Apr 2, 2012

thanks

send a green star

Debbie C.

3:00AM PDT on Mar 22, 2012

We have had a week of unusually warm days here and I have been cleaning out the garden and my flower beds. I even cut some Hyacinths and Daffodils. I love this time of year. Every thing is so fresh.

Eternal G.

5:35PM PDT on Mar 18, 2012

That is looking nice in a rigid way...

Melinda offline K.

8:26PM PDT on Mar 14, 2012

thanks, but I am in the southern hemisphere so its Autumn!

Dale O.

8:35PM PDT on Mar 13, 2012

Gardening is a pleasure and a relaxing past time and hobby, tasting so good from one's very own garden-especially that first tomato!

Laura S.

9:20AM PST on Mar 9, 2012

I need to get my tomatoes started. I'm already a week behind schedule and now I find out that I have no seeds! I could have sworn I already had some. Oh, well...Back to the store.

Andrea H.

3:03PM PST on Mar 5, 2012

Thank you!

Is anyone familiar with nut sedges and how to get rid of them without using toxic chemicals? I have dug down as 2' for them, spent days digging them up and they still keep coming back!

Sarah M.

3:15PM PST on Mar 4, 2012

Thanks.

Anne F.

1:09PM PST on Mar 3, 2012

snow of frozen dirt: I'm checking seed catalogs and finishing up indoor projects, so that there will be time for digging and weeding. Thanks for the tips.

Bren R.

6:30AM PST on Feb 26, 2012

I am so READY!!!