The beginning of spring can be very unpredictable, as it has been this year in the UK. If you are an avid gardener or love to spend time in your yard, you’ll probably be out the first second the weather gets slightly warm. While you’re trying to enjoy the spring sunshine, dead plants and leaves can spoil your view and can also be harmful to your garden.
If you want to make your garden pretty and healthy for this season, follow the steps in the spring cleanup checklist below.
When to Clean Up Your Garden
We are all excited for spring to come and enjoy our outdoor space, but it’s best to wait with cleaning it up until the soil defrosts and starts to dry out.
Walking on the soil while it’s still wet can make it difficult for plants to grow later. Until then, you can start with taking stock of your tools.
How to Spring Clean Your Garden
There are plenty of tasks to complete in the spring cleaning season, from removing winter mulch to cleaning up the vegetable garden, but this checklist has got you covered. To make things easier, you can download and print it out and take it with you to your garden.
1.Take Stock of Your Tools
Early spring is the best time to check your gardening tools’ overall condition, especially those that have been left outside.
2. Clean and Sharpen Your Tools.
Properly maintained tools will not only help you in working more efficiently and safely in the garden, but they will also last longer.
3. Tidy Up the Yard
While you are waiting for the soil to dry in your planting beds, start sprucing up the rest of your yard.
4. Remove Winter Mulch
Once the temperature starts to warm up, you can remove any winter mulch or other protection you added over your plants last autumn.
5. Pull Dead Annuals
Annual flowers only live for one year in harsh climates and won’t grow back after winter, so you can pull them out of the ground, including their roots and toss them into the compost bin.
6. Pull Weeds
Spring is the best time to start pulling the weeds out, as they are easy to see before all the plants start filling in. Once done, cover the soil with a layer of mulch.
7. Pest Control
Spring is the time to use a preemergent herbicide on crabgrass and weeds – timing is of the essence.
8. Clean Up the Vegetable Garden
Pull out any dead vegetable plants that you didn’t get around to removing last year and try to remove as much of the plant debris as you can as well.
9. Edge Garden Beds
Spring is the perfect time to edge your garden beds. Just clean them up before and remove the stray grass.
10. Brushback Leaves on Top of Plants
You don’t need to remove all of the leaves from your garden beds. Just be sure to brush back any thick layers that are sitting on top of your plants. Leaves are good for your garden.
11. Prune Shrubs
Early spring is an excellent time for pruning as it triggers new growth and helps prevent diseases, but don’t prune spring-blooming shrubs in the early spring.
12. Prep the Beds for Planting
Once the ground and the soil is soft but not too wet, start grooming your garden beds to bring them back to life.
If you want more tips on how to keep your garden clean and healthy, read the articles below:
Spring Checklist for Your Home
Timi loves her garden and teaming up with gardening businesses. She has teamed up this time with Wire Fence to provide a handy checklist on how to keep on top of your garden or yard before summer.
