10 Tasks to Prepare Your Spring Garden

Adapted from gardentherapy.ca

Inspect Raised Garden Beds
Check garden beds for any damage. Repair any bowed or split wood on the frames.

Check Your Garden Tools
Get your garden tools in tip-top shape before the planting season gets in full swing. Give them a good wipe down and inspect for rust on the tool heads.

Turn Your Compost
It’s time to turn your compost pile and check for any that is ready to use. Add compost to improve soil by scratching in finished compost into the top one inch of soil.

Top Dress Garden Beds
If you run short of home-grown compost, use well-seasoned manure to top-dress your garden beds in preparation for planting.

Divide Perennials
Spring is a great time to transplant divisions or move plants around. Share or trade some of your plants with neighbors and gardener friends, but be mindful of sharing pests, disease, and weeds.

Weed and Mulch
Eradicate those early spring weeds before they get too comfortable in your garden. Remove any young, sprouting weeds first and then put down a layer of cardboard or landscape fabric onto the bare ground before you add mulch

Seed Starting
Sow warm-weather vegetables and annuals indoors before the last frost date. To aid in germination, pre-soak larger seeds and seeds with thick coats such as beets and nasturtium the night before you sow them in starter pots.

Early Spring Vegetables
Direct sow any early spring vegetables once the soil is workable. Cool weather veggies like lettuce, cabbage, radishes and scallions will germinate in cooler soil.

Prune
Remove any dead branches from shrubs, trees and perennial foliage after new growth has begun. Prune the spring bloomers, like forsythia and rhododendrons, as needed soon after flowering is complete. Thin and shape hedges after the first flush of new spring growth.

Plan to Protect Seedlings
A late season frost or freeze can happen anytime in the spring. Make sure you have enough cloth and plastic to protect tender plants.

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