Have you been focused on spring cleaning inside your home? This time of year, when the light is newly bright again, take the time to open your eyes and look into all the spaces in your home. Get right into the corners and dark spaces. Clean them. Take the opportunity to look closely at your belongings. Dust them off and put them back or remove them from your home (if you determine they no longer fit your decorating style or lifestyle). Remember that spring lasts a good three months. Now is also the time to get your garden ready for spring.
When you are scheduling time in your calendar to do your deep spring cleaning in each area of your home also schedule time to focus on spring gardening. Tackling your whole home at one time is a daunting and overwhelming task. When you plan it out and break it down into small tasks this project becomes much more manageable. The same concept applies to spring gardening.
How to prepare your garden for spring
Whether your garden is large, small, or consists of pots it’s important to take stock of your garden. I love to garden. I used to have a very large garden with many different garden areas. Now I have a very small garden and lots of pots. No matter the size, I love to spend time in my garden!
The last few days I’ve been out looking at my garden to see which plants made it through the winter. I’m taking stock and thinking about the different plants I may want to add. While it’s too soon to plant it’s not too soon to plan and decide what you’d like to do with your garden.
Spring flower beds
My garden is full of shrubs, some perennial flowers, and some annual flowers. Some of my plants are along the sides of my home and some are in pots.
No matter your level of expertise or the size of your garden, playing in the earth with plants is a wonderful pastime.
Look at the area in your garden you may want to change. Determine if you’re adding plants in the shade or the sun. If it’s a sunny spot, try and calculate how many hours of sun that spot gets. It makes a difference as to which plants you want to consider. Likewise, if it’s a shady spot try and figure out if that area gets any sun at all or if it’s deep dense shade. The amount of sun makes a tremendous difference in the plants that will thrive in a location.
Another thing to consider as you get your garden ready for spring planting is the size and color of the plants. Do you need to fill in with some low growing plants in the front of your garden? Maybe you want to add a few annuals to provide a pop of color in your garden.
Getting planters and pots ready for spring
In addition to the amount of sun or shade there are some more things to consider when you plant your pots. You may want to add some vinelike plants that will spill over the edge of the pot and a single tall plant to add visual interest.
Once you have these things figured out take a trip to your local plant nursery, Home Depot, or Lowe’s. Generally, the people who work there have great information to share about the plants they carry. They can tell you about how tall and/or bushy a plant will get as well as what you will need to do to promote its continued growth.
Plan your vegetable garden
If you have never planted a vegetable garden and want to begin growing your own vegetables, start small and get your garden ready for spring planting by defining the area for vegetables. You want an area that has good drainage and good soil. One of the best ways to do this is by preparing a raised bed.
This is a great option for a beginner vegetable garden. Also, since the garden is raised it may not be as easy for small animals to snack on your plants.
Before you install your vegetable garden, whether it is raised or in-ground, look carefully at the amount of sunlight the area receives. Vegetables need lots of sunlight to grow.
As with everything else, getting every garden ready for spring is something that requires a plan. Pull out your calendar and schedule time to look at the garden space. It will take several observations at different times of day to figure out how much sun each area receives. Then take a walk around your neighborhood or your local botanical garden and take pictures of plants you like. Soon it will be time to plan the trip to buy the plants, and plant them.
If you planning a garden is something you want to do and don’t know how to plan your time reach out to me to schedule a free phone consultation.
Diane N. Quintana is a Certified Professional Organizer® ,a Certified Professional Organizer in Chronic Disorganization®, Master Trainer and owner of DNQ Solutions, LLC and co-owner of Release●Repurpose●Reorganize, LLC based in Atlanta, Georgia.
I’ve never had a garden or grown anything (except an avocado pit half-submerged in water, suspended by toothpicks as they teach you in kindergarten). But I definitely have clients who enjoy gardening, and I’ll be sure to point them in this direction.
I love how all of you garden in different ways. That’s the beauty of it. You can go full-on with large gardening areas to tend or keep it small and in pots. I love playing in the dirt but with limited involvement. During the pandemic, I tried growing herbs and vegetables (tomatoes, lettuce, basil, etc..) using only three pots in our greenhouse. My husband suggested going bigger, like the box you show above. But I knew the process needed to be easy and doable for me to enjoy and maintain it. I can’t tell you how much joy it brings each time I water the plants or pick something fresh to eat. It never gets old. I feel grateful and awe-inspired every time. Plus, it connects me to my grandmother (long gone), who LOVED her garden.
My gardening areas are coming along nicely. I just started sowing some seeds and will continue next weekend. It’s much more enjoyable if I don’t rush the process. I started clearing out plants that didn’t make it, prepping with fresh dirt, and then seeding and planting my herbs and vegetables. I decided to sow in the ground with Burpee Salad Greens Mix seed tape this year. It works pretty well. I have arugula, spinach, and red-leaf lettuce coming in. We are getting the siding cleaned this week, so my herb garden will start a little later this season. But that’s OK.
Ah, gardening season! I can’t wait! We can do lettuce, herbs, and some more “frost resistant” stuff up here in CT, but mostly I need to wait until after Mother’s Day. I have a garden with 4 beds and a fence around it because we have lots of deer and rabbits. They just eat everything!!!
One thing we can do now is turn the beds over to loosen up the dirt, so I’m hoping my husband will help with that. I’d love to grow more, like pumpkins, outside of my garden, since those vines are so big, but they just get eaten.
I do window boxes for my flowers, since those are high enough and literally attached to the house so the deer will usually leave them alone.
I think gardening is good for the soul and it does remind me every year of the miracle of growth.