Gardening To Do List In Early Spring – The clean-up is one of the central parts of your early spring garden preparation. Collect and dispose of any dead branches and other large debris, then rake and collect any fallen leaves around your property. The next step is pulling dead weeds, making sure to pull with them as much of the root as possible. Even seemingly dead weeds are often just dormant and remaining fragments of roots will often give rise to new weeds in the summer. If you don’t have a compost pile, collect all your debris in yard waste bags for disposal.
The soil is the base of your garden beds. If you don’t have good soil, you don’t have a good garden. Start your gardening off right with the best soil you can.
You can pick up a soil test kit at most gardening centers or home improvement stores. Test your soil now so that you can create an optimized plan for adding nutrients and fertilizers as necessary. It is also worthwhile to look into the types of flowers, shrubs, trees and plants that thrive best in your type of soil. Tailoring your garden to your soil is often a much better recipe for success than tailoring your soil to your garden. Always try to work with Mother Nature, not against.
Clean and sharpen all of your gardening tools if you don’t do this in the fall. You’d be surprised at how little work it takes to completely rejuvenate your gardening utensils. After you’ve made sure they’re free of dirt and debris, scrub them with water and mild dish soap, and then rinse well. Make sure they are dried thoroughly to prevent rust. The same applies to your pots and gardening containers, which may also need a quick clean. Inspect them for cracks and breaks and throw away any that are not worth trying to repair.
Also take this chance to sort through any chemicals and fertilizers that you have stored in your home, garage or shed, and dispose of any that are expired. Some older chemicals and fertilizers are much harsher on the environment than those available today, so check with your local municipality for how to dispose of your chemicals in an environmentally-conscious way.
