With winter finally approaching its end, spring time is right around the corner! Meaning now is the perfect time to begin planning and preparing for your spring garden. Below are a list of 5 ways you can do so efficiently, to ensure that you are fully prepared once blooming season arrives.
Find Your Zone and Choose Seeds
The first step to planning for your garden is researching your gardening zone. Once you’ve figured out your zone and soil you can begin setting up your calendar and deciding which seeds you will begin planting. Know your soil type and purchase seeds accordingly, or prepare to build a lifted garden bed with separate soil. Your zones can help you know which plants can be planted when and where as some plants need to be seeded inside first and others directly into your garden dividing the sun loving plants from the shade loving plants and figure out what. It would be wise to keep a notebook where you log the seeds that you plant, when you plant them, and how well they do. This helps to avoid confusion on when the plant comes to maturity and helps you keep tabs on diseases, successes and harvests.
Maintain Your Tools
Figure out what tools you will need. This means cleaning your tools as well and, also making sure you have all the tools you need or that the ones you do have are in good shape (round point shovel, gardening scoop, trowel, shears, rake etc) wash your tools in hot water and scrub them with a wire-stiff brush to remove any hardened soil. Instead of buying new tools when dull, a sharpener like a mill file can make them good as new. Apply natural oil to the metal parts of your tools and boil Linseed oil to the wood to keep them in great condition for the long term.
Cleaning
Over the winter your garden area may have become overthrown with leaves debris and weeds, you will need to make sure to remove all off that before you can begin planting. Be sure to remove all dead material from plants, and pull them up from stem and root so that they do not return and disrupt your seeds. If certain weeds are still giving you trouble, then you may decide to burn the area. Once you are back to bare soil, you will be prepared to add the mulch or top soil needed for the plants that you chose.
Prepare Soil and Lay Down Mulch
During the winter your soil will become more compacted for the cold weather. So you’ll want make sure you turn over or till the soil to make it workable for your new plants. You will need to work the soil to a depth of 12-14 inches to loosen it up. This is a perfect time to mix the mulch and fertilizer with your soil. Add fertilizer based off the requirements for the seeds that you’ve chosen. Although mulch can be laid down at any time of the year, waiting till spring is a better time as it can help avoid you stepping on newly emerging bulbs. As well as it helps prevent unwanted weeds from germinating. when choosing mulch for your garden, use the mulch suggested based off the seeds you chose, but if you are unsure about the specific mulch your seed needs most, ground mulch is a great option because it is very nutrient dense and will break down nicely.
Invest in a Quality Fence
Last but certainly not least, you will greatly benefit from a good fence to protect your garden. Though this is not a requirement, it’s very beneficial as all your hard work could be lost to a multitude of different animals that would love to enjoy your garden as much as you and your family do. A few things to consider when looking for a fence is finding one tall enough to prevent animals like deer from getting in, one with posts close enough together so that animals can’t walk through it, and it would also be wise to dig down and bury the fence about a foot deep so that burrowing animals can’t dig underneath to reach your garden. If looks are most important to you over cost, then an ornate fence is a great choice. If budget is more important to you than looks however, then a chain link fence is a great option. A great in between option that covers style and affordability would be a wooden or vinyl picket fence.
Most of time gardening is allot of work but with a little elbow grease you can till your soil and sharpen your tools instead of spending the money on new ones, you take care of the ones you have, allowing you to spend money on the stuff you need that’s important like seeds. Make sure not to forget your notebook so you have notes for your future gardening! And of course don’t forget to protect your garden with a quality fence so that all your hard work doesn’t go to waste in the belly of a wild animal.
