Spring Cleaning Before Planting a Beautiful Spring Garden

Doing research for this article, taught me a few valuable lessons. Plunging right into the dirt during early spring is not the way to plant a successful garden. It has been my intention to better research how to have a successful garden for the past couple of years but I never had the chance to do any research. This assignment provided the perfect chance to find out what I do wrong with planting and the short answer is-everything. The good news for those of you reading this is I have learned from my mistakes and can give examples of what not to do as well as examples of what to do if you want a lovely garden.

1) The first step in cleaning your spring garden is to examine your gardening tools. Clean these tools and be sure no new ones need to be bought.

2) To go along with examining your spring garden tools, examine the blades on your lawn mowers, weed-eaters, and hedge trimmers. Have these blades sharpened or replaced as need be.

3) Go through your equipment from the previous year. If you see any unused and expired chemicals, throw them away as they could be a health hazard.

4) After examining last year's supplies, the next step is to remove dead leaves, branches, and other winter debris. Doing these activities allows a reduction in plant infections and early blooming flowers to bloom and look healthier. I am guilty of overlooking this crucial step in clearing our garden from the past year and usually have the pitiful looking flowers as proof of it.

5) If you have a lot of pine trees, you will need to rake the leaves and combs as well. It is important to have a tarp handy to rake these onto when spring cleaning your garden. Pine combs are sharp and no fun to pick up individually. I am allergic to pine so this is the part of the season I hate the most. My husband normally rakes the needles together in early fall but leaves them in piles to spread back out by spring and they need raking again making spring cleaning more difficult. Allergy medications only help so much. Leaving needles piled in one large hill also means the grass underneath does not receive sunshine or the nutrients it needs to grow. Bare patches may result from the lack of sunshine. Wait until soil is dry and then plant grass seed by one shovel dirt and two shovels seed. Rake the mixture until level and remember to water it until seeds germinate. Protect the growing seeds from hungry birds by the use of hay or straw on the new area.

6) Remove all weeds in your flower bed. Doing this cleaning early in the spring will save countless hours of pulling weeds in the summer-the reason my garden never turned out well was because of not ridding the area of weeds. In 100 degree weather, I simply gave up.

7) Focus of the remains of last year's flowers while spring cleaning your garden. If you see the remains of annuals, pull them up. For perennials, you may see the beginnings of new growth at the base of the plant. Prune the perennial back to the base of the plant and remove winter mulch. Prune the plant to ground level.

8) It may be necessary to thin out perennials when spring cleaning your garden. For those you do not want, add them to the pile of leaves and pine combs on the tarp to throw away or put them in pots and share them with friends.

9) In early spring, clean your garden by pruning roses, shrubs, and other trees but be careful to do this before they blossom. Some trees and shrubs cannot be trimmed until late spring or the blooms will be cut off (some examples: hydrangea, lilac, magnolia). Honeysuckle, wisteria, flowering plum, and grape myrtle are fine to be pruned in early spring. For two of my favorite flowers, rose care should begin as soon as leaf buds begin to plump up and Irises should be cared for by trimming back foliage from the previous year to encourage new growth.

10) One of my favorite flowers for our flower bed is lavender. Because it is a woody perennial it needs to be cut back each spring while spring cleaning. Lavender and other woody perennials will only bloom on new branches. Delay the trimming until the risk of hard frost has disappeared. These types of flowers will show you when it is time to trim them by when the buds on the lower stems appear.

*An additional note: My aunt, who is an accomplished gardener now, began her gardening by spraying ant killer on her peonies. Peonies require ants to be able to open up into the beautiful blossoms they bring each spring. When your garden is clear from last year after following these steps, be very careful and knowledgeable about what you decide to plant. Good luck!*