Top Early-Spring Garden Chores To Tackle

It’s early spring now and the weather is getting warmer. This is the perfect time of a new year to start gardening. If you’re a newbie, make sure to follow this list of top early-spring garden chores to tackle.

Finish Winter Pruning Chores

If you haven’t finished all the winter pruning chores, it is not too late to do it now.

To make this post more informative, we’ll share with you a trick to decide whether a branch should be kept or pruned more precisely.

Step 1: Take a close look at the tree that you’re going to prune their branches. Look at different angles, far to close, and find out the branches that you think you want to prune.

Step 2: Tie these branches with ropes and colored ribbons.

Step 3: In the next couple of days, keep repeating step 1 whenever you visit your garden. Imagine how it would look after cutting off all of these branches.

If you change your mind, untie the branches that you don’t want to prune. Change the ribbons or ropes to other branches if available.

This helps you make a better decision of which branches to prune since you’ve thought about it thoroughly.

Inspect The Mulch Depth

Early spring is the most ideal time of the year to check if the mulch layer in your garden needs to be topped up.

If you use organic mulches, such as chipped or shredded wood, chances are that they’re blown away by winds, washed away by a downpour, or decomposed. Heavy snow also might press them a lot during the winter.

What you should do is raking the old mulch for ventilation, then top up with new mulching layers as long as it’s no thicker than 4”.

Make A Quick Sketch Of Your Bulbs Location

This comes in handy when you plant some more perennials or annuals later in the same bed. By figuring out the place of your bulbs, there are fewer risks that you destroy them when digging.

Inspect Birdhouses

There are several chores to tackle with your garden birdhouses, such as:

• Create a pile of nesting materials for your birds to easily take whenever they want
• Scrub the birdbaths and refill them with clean water
• Clean the feeders, then refill with fresh seeds
• Whether they are securely mounted or not

Stabilize And Level Unstable Stepping Stones

Downpours and snows are the common causes of uneven stepping stones in your garden, making it a bit more dangerous if you walk on them carelessly.

Repairing this issue as soon as possible by lifting up the uneven stones, then adding gravel or soil underneath them. Make sure that they’re equal with the ground using a level.

Inspect Stacked-Stone Walls

Just like stepping stones, your stacked-stone walls might be shifted during the winter because of snow, downpours, and strong winds, which results in an unsightly border look and dangers.

Don’t worry! It is easy to fix this issue; just move the bigger stones with smaller ones.

Protect Tender Plants

Spring is coming but that doesn’t mean the frost or freeze has ended. Some late-season frost might happen during early spring. So, it’s important to follow the weather forecast in your area and prepare for it.

For those under-frozen temperature nights, cover your seedlings with a cloth for extra warmth. To give your plants protection, lay plastic on top or build a mini greenhouse.

Start Planting Early-Spring Vegetables

With a good plan, you’ll have enough veggies to eat from spring to autumn.

Once the snow is melted and the soil is getting warmer, start growing cold-tolerant vegetables such as scallions, radishes, cabbage, and lettuce.

Make a separate area in your garden for short-term veggies that you can turnover throughout their growing season.

Turn Your Compost

If you started making a new pile of compost in the fall, it has probably been brewing during the winter months, and now, it’s time to check for any that is ready to use.

Turn it to bring materials at the edges to the center of the pile, which helps supply oxygen evenly to your compost as well as control odor.

If you use a compost bin, turn it by inserting your garden fork or shovel into the pile, then turn it over literally just like you would toss a salad.

Check Your Garden Tools

Early spring is the best time to restart gardening. But beforehand, it is necessary to inspect all of your garden tools. Check if the handle is firm and the blade needs sharpening.

If their heads are rust, replace them.

For those garden tools that aren’t in use immediately, still oil or wipe them clean to maintain their functions.

Refresh Your Lawn

Pay your turf some attention when the spring comes. Check if there’re any spots that need reseeding. Clean off fallen leaves, dead branches, and debris.

Start mowing your lawn but remember to lubricate moving parts, set up fresh spark plugs, and refill the machine with new oil before mowing. Sharpen the mower blades if necessary.

Conclusion

Spring gardening should be started soon while the weather in February is still chilly. From refreshing your turf to inspecting the mulch, start it now for a bountiful harvest come summer and autumn.

That’s all for our list of the top early-spring garden chores to tackle. Hope they’re helpful to you, and thanks for reading!