Although I love Spring, it is the hardest gardening time period of the year. When spring rolls around, my raised beds look like a weed haven. Dandelions, wild garlic, and general all purpose weeds have usually taken over my beds. I have no idea how they got there despite my meticulous fall maintenance routine. So, here are my 12 spring gardening maintenance tips that you must do NOW to keep your garden humming through the summer.
Spring Gardening Maintenance Tips to Get Your Garden in Shape
1. Trim your perennials: Make sure you trim all of your perennials. Nothing is worse then trimming those dead twigs when the rest of the plant is in bloom. I can’t tell you how many times I forgot to trim.
2. Remove the grass from your beds. Grass grows everywhere. Remove it while your plants are still wondering when it is safe to start growing again. Honestly, grass just confuses me. It grows where you don’t want it to grow and won’t grow where you want it to grow. Plus, it is IMPOSSIBLE to remove when it is growing inside your plants. Take a look at my oregano patch in the picture above.
I have spent hours weeding the grass from my chamomile patch. I am all ears on how to get rid of pesky grass in your beds.
3. Find your gardening gloves and tools. Last year in haste I put my million gardening gloves away somewhere. I can’t find “somewhere.” Now I am using a pair with holes at the top! Anyone have a unique way of storing their gloves other than wherever you put them down for the moment?
4. Get your raised beds ready for planting. I weed and add compost to all of my beds. As I mentioned above, wild garlic loves my garden so I remove all of it throughout the beds and in the walkways. It is a day chore. Anyone want to buy wild garlic?
PS I don’t use it much anymore since I have an overabundance but read HERE on how to use it.
5. Test your soil: Knowing what your soil needs is like getting dressed in the morning. Would you go outside without your shoes? Knowing the PH and the nutrient level of soil can make the difference between crop failure and success. Read HERE how to obtain a proper soil sample.
6. Buy good mulch. I no longer buy straw. It contains a ton of seeds. You may not have this problem so be sure to ask before you buy mulch. With all I have to do to maintain over 30 raised beds, the last thing I want to do is pull straw grass from my beds .
Read HERE on how to apply mulch the Ruth Stout way to avoid this problem. She taught if you applied 8 inches of mulch you wouldn’t have to weed. I haven’t tried this yet.
I use my leaves for my garlic, onions, and leeks since I can’ t tell the difference if they are grass or onions. (I store about 8 bags of leaves from the Fall in my garage.)
I use salt hay which is devoid of any seeds. It is a lot lighter and more expensive then straw so it vanishes much quicker. But in my opinion it is worth its weight in gold. However, there is an environmental side to this choice since the grass comes from the marshes.
7. Plan your beds. Nothing is worse than sticking plants anywhere when you are ready to put your plants in the ground. I use Grow Veg online software. Think of it as a drop and drag plant software.
I use the square foot garden method so I simply drag the vegetable of choice to the square and the software tells me how many plants can go in the square. {Note, I am an affiliate, but I use this software.}
8. Move your plants now. Yesterday we separated the Daylillies and moved the new raspberry suckers which are crowding my other plants. I also will be moving other herbs that are being killed by some of their aggressive herb cousins. Read HERE as to which plants you should divide and which ones you shouldn’t.
9. Propagate new plants: What more plants? Consider taking cuttings from the new growth. Read HERE which plants you can propagate in the spring. To learn how read HERE. I love propagating new plants.
10. Feed your plants: Feed your plants. They are hungry too. Read HERE when to feed your plants.
I fed my blueberries in April. Generally I feed my fruit trees too but they were severely pruned this year. (I let them get out of hand.) Read HERE for a guide on how much and when to feed your fruit trees.
11. Spray Horticultural Oil. You might be to late for this advice. I sprayed all of my fruit trees and boxwood plants to smother any dormant pests. My boxwood plants have leaf miner and I don’t want to use a systemic pesticide. Hopefully, the oil will smother the leaf miners and they won’t be able to mate. (They mate in a couple of weeks.)
You spray before bud break. My apple trees were just starting to bud so I sprayed in the nick of time. I also use it during the summer for white flies and aphids. My collard greens are a magnet for white flies.
According to Iowa State
“The following pests are good candidates for control by oil spray: pine needle scale, oystershell scale, euonymus scale, aphids, spider mites and small pine sawfly larvae. Many of our most annoying and common garden pests such as apple maggot, cabbageworms, white grubs and others are not effected by oil spray.”
Washington State adds the following insects that horticultural oil can smother as well as when to spray.
“Horticultural oil sprays control pests such as adelgids, aphids, cankerworms, leafhoppers, leafrollers, leaftiers, mealybugs, mites, mosquitoes, psyllids, scales, tent caterpillars and webworms. Horticultural oils kill the overwintering pests and eggs that cling to stems on woody plants, trees, and shrubs.”
Most oils are made from petroleum based products. I use Organic JMS Stylet-Oil but read HERE for Cornell’s homemade version. Skip the recipe with canola.
12. Get some advice. If you are a newbie, consider purchasing the e-book from my friend Susan. She does an excellent job walking you through how to grow vegetables properly. In fact, I couldn’t have done a better job myself. Be sure to read the advice of my gardener readers HERE.
Join the Conversation:
- What are your spring gardening maintenance tips?
Disclaimer: There are affiliate links in this post. Every dime helps Green Talk to deliver great content. Thanks for your support.
Jeff Morgan says
You mention pulling the grass out of your beds… do you have any clue as to why I keep getting patches of grass growing on my rock garden? I purposely removed the soil, replacing it with layers of stone and sand for drainage and topped it all off with small landscaping stones, and yet every couple of weeks I am pulling up grass in the garden.
Sorry. Drives me nuts.
Anna@Green Talk says
Jeff, when you cut the grass is the grass blowing into your rock garden? Anna
Jeff Morgan says
No more grass. I removed it altogether! That is what is so frustrating. I don’t understand. AND… I have a layer of decomposed granite, rocks, sand and heavy duty landscaping fabric.
The only thing that makes sense to me is some sort of seed is flying onto the rocks, but for the life of me, I don’t know how it is able to take root since I have three layers between it and soil.
Kevin says
Excellent maintenance tips you have shared on gardening. Definitely would comes in handy for the newbies. Thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge.
Impressive post, indeed.
Kevin Young says
Great Share!
Almost everything has been covered up related to gardening and really brilliant ideas and tips which I would definitely apply in my own garden.
Oliver says
Thanks for sharing, Anna. I stand by your tip–BUY GOOD MULCH. I’ve had an unpleasant experience in the past with some cheap mulch that did nothing but cause more mess for me. Bleh.
William G. Roberts says
Hey, I have read your post. Thanks for such a nice post, its really informational.
It is also important to set up the patch of plants near a faucet so it would be simple to keep them since you wouldn’t need to move around that much.
And most important deciding which plant to grow is one of the most critical processes a gardener has to take. Since identifying which type is also going to give you an estimation of the size of the garden plot you should have.
Keep sharing!!