Spring Garden Preparation Tips: A Checklist

It takes time, planning and preparation to have a healthy garden, but any seasoned gardener will tell you that extra effort is worthwhile when you see a flourishing bed of flowers or vegetables. Whether you’re an expert or a beginner without a green thumb, we’ve put together 8 useful spring garden preparation tips to help you kickstart a successful season. With this checklist, you’ll surely have a stunning garden to enjoy all summer long!

1. Prepare Your Garden Tools

A flourishing garden starts with efficient and well-kept gardening equipment. Clean your tools using hot water and scrub off any hardened soil. You’ll also want to sharpen any tools that have gotten dull and oil wooden handles to ensure they stay in great condition.

2. Take Stock of Your Seeds

One of the most exciting parts of spring garden prep is selecting the seeds you will be sowing in the weeks to come. There is just something about walking into your local garden store to choose exactly what it is you’d like to grow! If you’re a seasoned gardener who’s using your own seeds, be sure to check the condition of your seeds, how many you have available and whether you need to purchase replacements.

3. Create a Planting Calendar

This is one of our best spring garden preparation tips: if you haven’t been keeping a garden calendar, now is the time to start! Taking note of your planting and harvesting schedule makes it so much easier to track what stage your plants are in, especially if you’re planting produce. Bonus points if you document any special details, like disease or particularly successful harvests!

4. Prune

Spring is the time to trim any shrubs or trees, before buds blossom. As mentioned in our first tip, be sure to use clean and sterile shears so as not to spread any plant diseases throughout your garden. It’s also helpful to add a little fertilizer to the soil to quickly heal over cut areas and encourage new growth!

5. Prepare Your Soil

Take note of how your soil currently looks, as well as how it’s performed in the past. To freshen your garden beds, turn your soil to loosen it, add compost and any extra nutrients you wish to include and cover with mulch. This brings us to our next list item!

6. Add Mulch

Mulching is one of our favorite spring garden tips because it is an easy, inexpensive way to polish up your garden. Not only does it make your garden look clean and beautiful, but it also keeps down any nagging weeds and retains soil moisture for healthier plants. Our tip is to buy a few more bags of mulch than you think you need. It’s a common gardening mistake to underestimate how much mulch is needed to cover a garden.

7. General Landscaping

Cleaning up the rest of your yard with some light landscaping will allow your garden to truly shine! Tasks like maintaining garden pathways, pulling up weeds and last year’s dead annuals and removing debris like branches or leaves can make a huge impact on how your overall garden looks (not to mention, get you excited for the beauty to come!).

8. Start Planting Your Garden

Let the real fun begin! Now that your prep work is complete and the ground has begun to thaw, you can start planting new perennials, cold-hardy annuals, and trees and shrubs. Perennials, shrubs and trees especially need some time to settle in before it gets too hot, so this is an ideal time to get those in the ground if you are incorporating them into your garden.

Cumberland Crossing by OceanView

At Cumberland Crossing by OceanView, our active senior living community is ideal for those who wish to spend their retirement doing what they love! After all, that is one of the great beauties of your golden years – having the free time to take advantage of the things that bring joy to your life, such as gardening!

We offer two customizable, maintenance-free cottages with ample outdoor space for the garden of your dreams! Prefer to simply enjoy your garden without the hassle of maintaining it? We offer garden care as part of our lawn and landscaping services! There is also a Cumberland Crossing community garden in our future – stay tuned for more details!

To learn more about our independent retirement community, please contact us at Cumberland Crossing today!