Getting Your Garden Ready for Spring

After what seems to be one of the longest winters in a very long time, spring has finally sprung! Although there is still the occasional cold day, the weather is beginning to finally turn warmer, which means that it’s time to start thinking about your garden. The unusually cold winter has pushed back spring planting a bit; however, it’s not too early to begin the necessary preparation work. If you’re not sure where to start in preparing your garden for the upcoming planting season, don’t worry! Here are some helpful tips for preparing your garden:

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.

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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!

Prepping your Yard for a Shed

You’ve just bought your first (or new) prefabricated storage shed! You can wait until it’s delivered to start filling it up. But wait! There are a few things you need to do to prepare your land for the shed. Here at Stoltzfus Structures, we are happy to deliver your new prefabricated shed. Although we take care of the delivery and placement of your storage shed, we do not take care of the site preparation. We are more than happy to deliver your new shed to the exact spot you have prepared. In that case, we wanted to bring you some great tips for getting your yard prepared ahead of delivery time for your great new storage shed!

Clear Out 

The most important thing to do after you purchase a new storage shed is to decide exactly where you want it to live. You may already have a wonderful place in mind, but there are few things to think about. You want to make sure the area can support the structure. Picking a location where the ground is sloping or uneven is not recommended. A level, sturdy foundation will make all the difference in the life and longevity of your prefabricated shed. Don’t worry, prepping your land or yard will only require a bit of work.

If you don’t have any totally level areas in your yard, or have some issues with the terrain, the best option is to clear it out! Grab your friends and family to help you dig out and level off the best patch of land you can find. Be sure to remove any hidden rocks, roots, or any other natural elements of the landscape that could cause problems in the future. Be sure not to dig too deep though. You only want to go far enough into the ground in a way that creates a level base for your new garden shed.

This will probably only require getting rid of unwanted grass, rocks, roots, and more. Also, you might want to think about making use of a tiller. A tiller will easily break up the ground and create any easy way to remove patches of unwanted grass. You may even want to keep the tiller around for your spring and summer gardening projects!

 

If you worry that clearing out an area for your new garden shed to live will be too much work for you to do yourself, don’t! We have lots of great resources to help you. We are in contact with some great teams of contractors that would be happy to help. Our network of professional contactors would be happy to help you clear your land; we’ll give you recommendations on the best companies to hire! Also, if you want your shed to live on a concrete slab, the slab needs to be the exact size of the shed to ensure proper water drainage. We’ve got friends that can help with that too.

Shape Up 

Now that you’ve cleared a great space for your new garden shed to live, it’s time to start thinking about how you’re going to accent your new purchase. Do you need a fence to separate your shed from your neighbor’s house? Are you interested in adding a ramp, walkway, or some shrubbery? These are all really fun, good things to think about. Adding a ramp up to the entrance of your prefabricated shed is a great option. A ramp can help with getting lawn mowers in and out of your shed and any other machinery you want to keep inside. Also, creating a nice stone walkway completes the look of your shed. This walkway is versatile too! It’ll create a smoother, more appealing entrance leading to your garden shed.

One more thing to think about is our built-on-site sheds. Sometimes where our customers want to put a new shed isn’t the most accessible location for our delivery trucks. Our gifted craftsmen will bring all of the materials needed to build an amazing shed on the site you’ve prepared for us. No matter if you’ve prepared a wood or concrete foundation for the shed to live on, we’ll take care of the assembly. Having us build an on-site shed also allows for extra flexibility with the building itself. If you want higher walls than we could deliver on our trucks, we can do that too!

We hope this guide to preparing your land for one of our sheds was helpful. If you have any questions, visit our website or give us a call!

Pavilions Versus Pergolas

Your property can be absolutely beautiful with the right landscaping and care. Shaping the terrain and the plant life into something comfortable, attractive, and healthy takes time and effort, but it is not without its benefits. Of course, truly enjoying the nature that you have surrounded your home with can be difficult from the windows and sunroom of your home. That’s why so many homes that invest in their landscaping inevitably turn to adding a pergola or pavilion to their property – all the better to enjoy their hard work and the bounty of nature from!

What Pavilions Offer 

A pavilion is the most common structure that you will see on well cared for properties. Offering both style and sound structural integrity, a pavilion can not only match your home in terms of materials, decoration, and roofing, but it can also be a beautiful addition that perfectly accents the architecture and look of your home and property. Pavilions are especially ideal when you are in a particular warm or rainy area, yet still wish to take the time to truly enjoy your back yard. With a pavilion, you get the shade and cover that you would expect from a sound structure, but without the excess sunlight and heat, as well as getting plenty of protection from the rain and other inclement weather.

 

Pavilions see most of their use either alongside a pool or as a great location for entertaining guests and family. As far as a pool is concerned, you don’t always want to lie out on your towel in between dips; sometimes you want to relax on a nice chair or bench, in the shade and out of the sun, comfortably chatting away or just taking a brief nap. A pavilion is perfect for exactly that – an escape from the pool and the sun, a nice in-between spot for you and your guests!

Speaking of guests, if you are planning to host a party, a barbecue, or just a picnic of sorts, a pavilion is a great place to do so! With its own tables, chairs, and decorations, the pavilion is the perfect place to host such events. With the considerable space that a pavilion offers, you can also fit a grill and other cooking supplies and apparatuses! Indeed, pavilions are the go-to location for barbecue aficionados!

What Pergolas Offer 

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Pergolas offer a different experience. Substantially smaller and without the solid roof that pavilions offer, pergolas offer some shade and a small space to sit at, drink, eat, and relax, without being a large, shaded structure of the sort that a pavilion often is. The Pergola is great for any outdoor space, and often makes a great location for romantic dates and dinners, especially alongside a pond or pool while surrounded by trees and shrubberies.

Pergolas come in a variety of styles, from artisan-style pergolas to more rustic-looking pergolas. They come in many different materials, from wood to vinyl to more, all depending on your particular aesthetic, as well as whether or not you plan to build it yourself using a pergola kit! Regardless of the style that you want to have your pergola use, there is surely a kit for you. Many pergola owners choose to grow plants very near the structure, with vines slowly – or more often, quickly! – climbing their way up the wood and entwining themselves into the latticework and intersections of the pergola. This creates an even more “ivied” look that makes the pergola a great private location for small, intimate gatherings.

Making the Choice 

When choosing between the pergola and the pavilion, the main thing to consider is what kind of use you are going to get out of it. If you want to host large gatherings of friends or family, then a pavilion is almost certainly for you. It has the space and shade for nice, long, big gatherings that amount to parties and dinners and lunches and generally just lazing around with friends. On the other hand, a pergola is perfect for private use by individuals who value their privacy and “alone time.” Give how classically romantic they appear, it is no wonder that so many couples enjoy pergolas on their properties – nothing is quite so romantic as an evening surrounded by nature and fine craftsmanship, after all!