Springtime Garden Chores – Love It, Leave It, Just Do It!
It’s not too early to start thinking about your Springtime Garden Chores and preparing a checklist. If you weren’t able to get your Fall and Winter gardening chores done, put them on the list and do them as soon as possible as this will make your spring chores shorter.
I know, I can see your eyes rolling and hear you groaning more work. Wait a minute, hang in there; it isn’t really work if you love gardening. These are simply steps we need to take in preparation for our Spring Garden, our Best Spring Garden.
A question I often hear is, “Where should I start, what do I do first?” The answer is quite easy; grab your garden log or garden record book. If you’ve kept it up then you’ll know what was done or not finished. If you didn’t finish making notes in your garden log, then take a little time to make notes and finish it.
If you are new to gardening and this will be your first year, the best tip I can give you is, “Start a Garden Log”. Write everything in it and I do mean everything. Here’s a short list to get you started:
The phone number for your local county extension office
Names of the Garden Catalogues you are looking at or ordering from
Plants and Seeds you are considering planting
Frost dates for your area
Write down the last frost date
Unusual patterns in the weather
Dates of seeds started
Dates plants were transplanted
Techniques you are using
Problems you run into and your solutions
Experiments and their results
Harvest Dates
Harvest Methods
Putting the garden to bed
Seasonal Chores
Have you planned your spring garden? If not this is the time to do it. If you are ordering any plants or seeds, do it now.
Once your garden log is up to date, a good place to start Springtime Garden Chores is to look over your tools both hand tools and small engine tools:
Is anything damaged, do they need any repairs
Are they clean, this is a good time to clean them
Rub the wooden handles with oil
Do oil changes and tune ups if they need it, don’t forget to write the date down in your equipment log
While you’re at it organize your tool shed so its ready to go
How about the greenhouse or tool shed, more springtime garden chores:
Does it need any repairs
Clean out any dead plants
Clean out expired fertilizers, insecticides, etc
Clean all the flats and containers
Remember the Rule of Thumb: Stay out of the garden until the soil is dry enough to work. This gives you time to get the other spring garden chores done including your lawn.
Now is a good time to start weeding, it will cut down on your weeding time if you weed before they have a chance to go to seed and spread. It will also be one less spot for slugs to hide. If you’re in an area plagued with slugs and garden snails start watching for them and put out traps. Remove debris where they could hide.
This is the time to catch up on deadheading the spent or dead flowers. Pruning can be done now but first research the requirements for each plant and prune at the right time as it does make a difference. Yes, different plants are pruned differently and at different times. Research the when, what, or how to prune a specific plant, shrub, bush, or tree. Your local county extension office can help you with this or a local nursery.
I can still remember the first time I pruned a Hydrangea bush, I didn’t bother to research when, what, or how to prune it or ask anyone; after all it was springtime and everyone was out pruning. We were new to the neighborhood and I wanted to keep up with everyone else. I went to work on this 5 foot high Hydrangea bush, only looking up every now and then; I knew the neighbors were watching and I wanted to do a good job. I had it down to just a 4 or 5 inches tall in no time. Later one of the neighbors asked my husband why I hated the Hydrangea bush as I had butchered it. It took a couple of years before it bloomed again and never did fully recover. For many years afterward I wasn’t allowed to touch the pruners. So please do your research before you grab the pruners and go at it.
Why is it when we mention the word chore or chores, we automatically think work or something we’d rather not do? Possibly because as children we were required to do chores and we thought of it as work or a chore may have been punishment.
If you love gardening then Springtime Garden Chores are not really chores; they are simply part of our springtime gardening routine and preparation for the gardening season.
For a complete list of Springtime Garden Chores, of what needs to be done in preparation for a spring garden go to Gardener’s Checklist for Springtime.
Happy Gardening!
