Create a Compost Area
If you don’t yet have a compost area, now is a great time to think about creating one. Although not every gardener uses it, compost is one of the best ways to keep your garden healthy and fruitful. The nutrients from the decomposed material are great for the soil in your garden.
It’s easy to create your own compost pile; simply select a flat area nearby to your garden. Then throughout the spring and summer, as you clean up your yard and flowerbeds, instead of throwing away the grass clippings and other plant waste, simply pile them on the compost area. Food waste can also be used as compost material.
Prepare Your Soil
Having healthy soil is the key to having a productive garden. Even before the soil totally thaws from the winter frost, there are things you can do to prepare your soil. The first thing to do is rid your garden of unwanted plants and rocks. Having soil that is too rocky is not conducive to growing strong, healthy plants. Not every rock needs to be removed; just those that are large enough to prevent your seeds from sprouting. If there are any unwanted fallen branches or dead plants on the soil, these should be removed as well.
As the weather warms up, your soil will begin to thaw, causing weeds to spring up in your soil. These weeds should be thoroughly cleared before you begin your spring planting. If there are only a few weeds, pulling them out by hand or spraying them with some weed killer will do the trick.
If your garden has been invaded by a whole army of weeds, you may consider using a rototiller to overturn the soil to rid the weeds. Even if your garden does not have many weeds, tilling can still be beneficial to the health of your garden. Having the top level of soil overturned and turning your soil into smaller particles can be great in helping your seeds grow properly into healthy plants. Turning over your soil may also bring up some hiding bug pests; be sure to eliminate these as well!
If you have a compost area already in place, now can be a great time to spread some compost on the soil to add some vital nutrients and minerals to the fresh spring soil. If this will be your first year creating a compost area and you do not yet have any decomposed material, spreading some fertilizer on the soil can work as well.
Prepare Your Gardening Tools
Before it comes time to actually plant your garden, you want to be sure that your gardening tools are ready for planting. You don’t want to prepare for the task of planting the seeds and then realize that your hoe, shovels, and rakes are not up to par! First of all, give all of your tools a thorough cleaning. This will prevent the spread of diseases that may have accumulated on your tools over the winter. Cleaning your tools properly ensures that the diseases are not spread to your plants and do not contaminate the soil.
Next, be sure that your tools are sharpened. Sharpened tools will lessen the amount of work that your body has to do, and will make the tools work for you instead. Sharpening your tools will also help to maintain them, so that they last longer from year to year.
Now that you’ve prepared your tools, you will need a place to store them properly. This is where our Garden Store Sheds will come in extremely handy. Our garden sheds come in many different sizes, shapes, and colors to perfectly fit the style of your yard. The sheds are small and compact enough to be constructed close to your garden for easy access. You can either pick one of our numerous designs and construct the shed yourself, or have a fully constructed shed brought to your yard; the choice is yours!
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