Feeling green-fingered with the lighter evenings? With fresh motivation from the changing of the seasons, there’s no better time to put your energy to good use in the garden.
From preparing the soil for planting to inspecting last year’s seedlings, there’s plenty to be getting on with before the start of summer. No matter whether you’re a total beginner or an expert grower, we’ve outlined three key seasonal gardening tasks below.
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Rejuvenating your garden: 3 springtime gardening tasks
Pruning and Trimming
Spring is one of the most ideal times to prune trees, perennial plants and shrubs to encourage a healthy growth cycle and natural shape too. Looking after your garden shows loving personality traits towards your plants and trees.
Firstly, remove damaged, wilting or diseased branches with clean, sharp pruners first. This prevents the spread of pathogens and may improve the overall liveliness of your plants. Next, trim overgrown foliage away to promote greater sunlight exposure and improved airflow too. These steps reduce the risk of diseases and infections caused by fungi, pests and more. When pruning, wear gloves, use sharp secateurs and protect your arms and legs with a long sleeve top and thick trousers like tactical jeans.
One more thing to remember: avoid pruning spring-blooming plants until after they’ve finished blooming, so you don’t disturb the blooming cycle.
Inspection
With warmer temperatures, it’s time to get out there and see what happened in the garden through the winter. Assessing the soil conditions gives you all the information you need to start making necessary changes and improvements ready for summer.
Start by loosening any compact soil. Using a fork or tiller, this process will improve draining and aeration, promoting healthy growth and nutrition for your plants. This is also a great time to add organic matter like compost, leaf mulch or manure to enrich the soil and enhance its structure.
After your inspection, you can start planning the variety and placement of new plantings in your garden. Vulnerable fruits and delicate plants should be kept safe in a polytunnel greenhouse, while your flowers can be left for everyone to admire.
Weeding and Pest Control
Finally, as soon as spring starts, your plants become threatened by weeds. These unwelcome visitors compete with your plants for nutrients, space and sunlight – and therefore survival!
Keep ahead of weed growth and inspect your garden beds regularly. Remove any unwanted plants as soon as you see them. You could use a combination of hand-pulling, mulching and hoeing to prevent weed growth and stop germinating seeds in their tracks. It’s also worth looking out for some of the plant pests and diseases commonly found across the UK. Monitor your plants frequently for signs of abnormalities. Pest management techniques include using organic pesticides or handpicking them from your plants, however, natural predators like birds could keep them at bay – if they’re not tempted to eat your fruits, too
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