Spring In Your Garden
That time of the year for spring in your garden. It’s the perfect time to give your garden some TLC. The soil’s warming and preparing to sow new life. Get your garden ready with our Spring Garden Checklist.
Plan, plan, plan!
When it comes to planning what to plant, make a list of the vegies and herbs you like to eat and buy regularly from the supermarket. Work out which if these vegies and herbs will thrive in your garden from our “What to grow” guides. These will help you to work out what you can grow by regional zone in September, October and November.
Test your soil
Sometimes you can notice the lawn or the plants are not growing as well or not responding to fertiliser. This can be attributed to the pH of the soil. This is a good time to test the pH levels to take action during Spring.
Start indoor seed sowing
Spring is the best time to plant cuttings or sow seeds. This is not as daunting as it may seem! To get started, go through your packets of seeds and check for any that are out of date. Those that have reached their expiry date, Sprinkle a sample of seeds on to some damp paper towels, fold the towel over and place in a ziplock bag. Place this in a warm place out of the sun. Anything that is still OK will germinate within a couple of weeks. For more information on propagating from seed, check out 5 Ways to Propagate Indoor Plants.
Clean up your garden space
Start your gardening on the right foot with a good spring clean! Tidying up the garden will give a good, clean canvas to work from and make it easier to plant your favourite plants. Start with removing weeds with our top 5 weeding tips for your garden.
Be sure to check and clean drains and gutters and anywhere else where leaves may have accumulated. This will ensure there are no unwanted visitors in your garden and prevents any blockages around your gutters and drains. Give your windows a good clean to let in all that sunlight to help your indoor plants thrive. If you live in a 2-storey house, check out the easiest way to clean high windows.
Sharpen, reorganise and restock your garden tools
Get your tools into tip-top condition with a good clean-up and a few repairs. Check out caring for your tools on how to give your tools a clean, sharpen and oil.
Reactivate your compost pile
Compost provides so many nutrients to the soil and turning the compost helps speed up the decomposition process. This will give you more compost in a shorter space of time. Turning the compost also prevents pest infestations and the compost from smelling.
Inspect the walls of your raised beds
This is a good time to make a few repairs in the garden and around the yard. Check if any of your raised garden beds need to be repaired.
Turn under cover crops or feed it to chickens
Cover crops grow thickly among each other and are a living mulch in gardens. They are great at preventing weeds and keeping the soil healthy. Cover crops are “green manures”. Turn under your cover crops by digging them back into the ground and give your soil some extra nutrients.
Cultivate the soil
Cultivating the soil will bury weeds into the soil and aerate the ground. It allows air nutrients and water to penetrate the soil giving the plants’ roots access to grow.
Fertilise
Keeping your garden well-fed and nourished is essential to help you grow healthy and thriving plants. Happy, healthy, well-nourished plants are more resistant to pests, diseases, heat stress and frost. Fertilizing the garden is easy to do, but you need to apply the right fertilizer for your plants at the right time of the year. Check out our Guide to Fertilising in Spring to apply the right fertiliser to your garden.
With school holidays around the corner, it’s also a great time to get the kids in the garden. Get them involved with some healthy family competition. Sunflowers are the epitome of spring, so why not get everyone in the family to plant a sunflower seed, and whoever has the tallest sunflower at the end of the school holidays wins!
Lastly, here’s a small downloadable visual checklist on all that can be done in the garden before Spring arrives!
