Is Your Garden Ready for Spring? 8 Essential Tips to Prepare for Warmer Weather

The first signs of spring can be some of the most wonderful moments of the year. Days become a little brighter, we begin feeling a little warmer in the mornings, and there may even be some blossom appearing on trees. While the countdown to spring can be an optimistic time, it also tells us that it’s time to get to work on our gardens. 

We may be used to spring cleaning our homes, but our gardens need just as much love and attention to ensure that they’re ready for the busy season ahead. 

For budding gardeners, there can be plenty of challenges on the way, but where exactly should you focus? Let’s take a look at eight essential ways to ready your garden for the spring season: 

1. Focus on the Pre-Spring Clean

Embracing the art of ‘pre-spring cleaning’ your garden means that you can provide your backyard with ample time to flourish by the time temperatures begin to pick up and flowers begin to grow once again. 

Pre-spring cleaning involves collecting dead leaves and stalks that have fallen to the ground. While this may not seem like the most glamorous task in the world it’s very important. Dead leaves can harbour diseases and enable bacteria to develop and infect your plants. 

It’s also important to sweep your decking or patio to ensure that surfaces are safe and clear. While you may be intent on using cleaning products on other surfaces or furniture, be sure to avoid any product coming into contact with your plants. 

2. Order Your Bulbs and Seeds for the New Season

In the build-up to those colorful spring months, it’s the perfect time to order summer-flowering bulbs and seeds. 

The beauty of ordering your flowers early is that you can use the darker, colder months to focus on how you want your garden to look when color returns to your flowerbeds. 

The likes of lilies, gladioli, and ranunculus can all be ordered in winter for planting in those early spring months and can offer a timely pick-me-up that brighter days are on the horizon. 

3. Ready Your Soil for Spring

Putting in those extra hours of work to make sure your soil is ready for spring will pay dividends when it’s time for your garden to start taking shape. 

After clearing any obstructions, be sure to dig in compost and other organic matter to help build a structure that will provide plenty of nutrients for your flowers to grow throughout the year. 

It’s even possible to test your soil using ready-made kits online to help ensure that it’s in good shape for the busy spring period. 

4. Get Pruning

Now should be the perfect time to audit the plants in your garden, and take to pruning any dead, diseased, or damaged stems as a way of keeping your garden healthy. 

Much like dead leaves, dead stems can attract insects and provide a breeding ground for diseases to develop. Getting rid of these problem areas nice and early provides your plants and foliage with the best chance of survival throughout the months ahead. 

In addition to this, shrubs like fuchsia and buddleia can be cut all the way back to the base to allow the development of new flowers throughout the springtime. 

5. Extend Spring Cleaning to the Shed

Your shed takes on fresh levels of importance over the springtime, and it’s worth making sure that it’s up to the challenge of another busy season. 

Make sure your tools are all sharpened and ready to go. Oil your hinges and assess whether it’s time to invest in a new range of tools that are up to the challenges that the year ahead will bring. 

For the best effect, use a mill file to sharpen your blades, and use penetrating oil to keep corrosion at bay. 

While this may seem like a lot of effort, it could pay dividends when the weather warms and you’re finding it easy to dig and prune using your sharp and slick set of tools. 

6. Get Your Sun Protection in Check

Preparing your garden for the spring also means planning out how you will use it throughout the warmer months. If you’re keen to use the space in your backyard, it’s worth setting your garden up with a great open space that’s protected from the elements. 

The beauty of adding a shade sail to your garden is that it can provide fashionable protection against the elements that avoid depriving your plants of valuable sunlight. 

Umbrellas can also do a great job of offering UV protection in warmer weather and provide a healthy degree of portability. 

7. Set Yourself a Planting Calendar

Different plants flourish at different times of the year. For many budding gardeners, it can be difficult to remember when to plant and harvest different varieties of garden greenery. 

With this in mind, it’s certainly worth creating a planting calendar to keep track of when it’s best to be looking at when you can take to your garden for the best results. 

The good news is that many online resources offer pre-designed planting calendars, and you can edit them however you like. 

8. Divide Your Perennials

Before spring kicks into gear, it’s the perfect opportunity to begin dividing your perennial plants. This can help to offer a strong canvas to create beautiful colorful effects throughout your flowerbeds without having to go and buy from new plants. 

By dividing perennials each year, you can keep your garden healthy over longer periods. This is because perennials can grow in large clumps that eventually thin out in the middle. However, dividing accordingly can leverage better and more consistent growth. 

Pick Up Spring Habits Early

Now you can hit the spring season with a running start and utilize your planting calendar to spread your tasks evenly throughout the coming months. 

Be sure to regularly maintain your garden with weeding, mulching, and watering and you’ll have everything you need for a fit and healthy backyard to bloom as those spring months come back round.