How to Prepare Your Garden for Spring
Winter is winding down, and it’s that time of the year to prepare for the season of spring. The overall health of your garden in the warmer months depend largely on how you prepare your garden for spring. Here are some tips on what to do to coax a beautiful garden out from the snow.
Clean Your Garden
The first thing to do to prepare your garden for spring is to sanitize and clean your garden as soon as the fall season is about to transition into winter. Cleaning your garden simply means getting rid of plant waste and anything that can be a source of disease, bugs, slugs and fungal growth in your garden. Strip away dead vines, get rid of weeds and trim tree branches. This will be a good time to tidy away your gardening tools as well.
Checking the Soil
Pre-spring is the best time for you to review your soil makeup and decide on what’s lacking and what needs to be fixed. It goes without saying that soil makeup makes or breaks your garden’s overall health and appearance. gardeningMost local universities offer soil testing, so you can simply take a soil sample from your garden, put it in a sealed plastic bag and take it to be tested. Make sure that the soil is thawed by taking a bit of the soil and ball it in your fist. If the soil crumbles in your hand, it’s thawed. If it stays into a ball shape, it’s still wet.
What the soil analysis should check for are:
Soil pH levels. pH levels affect how your plants can effectively absorb nutrients from the soil.
Nitrogen. Encourage green growth in plants. Yellowing leaves are often a sign of nitrogen deficiency.
Phosphorus. Encourages root growth, seed and fruit maturation.
Potassium. Plant resistance to disease and fungal infection.
Calcium. For leaf growth and root development.
Magnesium. For chlorophyll production and green growth.
Soil Drainage
Check your soil drainage as soon as the soil has thawed. Proper soil drainage dictates how effectively your plants will absorb the nutrients in the soil, therefore there should be a proper balance between the ability of your water to hold and drain soil.
To test soil drainage, dig a hole six inches wide and a foot deep. Fill the hole with water and time how long it takes for the water to be drained in the soil. Fill the hole again and time it again. If it takes more than eight hours for the water to drain, then you have a soil drainage problem.
After the water has drained away for the second time, dig six inches deeper into the hole. If the hole is completely dry, it means that the soil leaches water away too quickly.
Planning the Garden
Make a map of your garden and decide on what plants you want.Base your decisions on choosing plants using two qualifications:
The USDA Zone. Plants work well in particular climates, and consulting the USDA zone can help narrow down your options with the list of plants that are capable of growing in a specific climate zone.
Light Conditions. Visit your garden every two hours and observe which areas get the most light, and which areas do not. Certain plants need full sunlight while others are fine with the shade. Base your plant mapping on light conditions in your garden.
Amending the Soil
Once you’ve determined what your soil has and what it lacks, it’s time to amend the soil to produce healthy plants. Here’s how to amend certain soil deficiencies:
Nitrogen. Add green vegetable matter or grass clippings.
Phosphorus. Add phosphate, soft rock or bone meal.
Potassium. Add green vegetable matter, sulfate of potash or wood ashes.
Calcium. Add gypsum.
Magnesium. Add magnesium sulfate.
Soil pH. For high pH soil, add sulfur sources like gypsum. For low pH soil, add dolomite lime or eggshells.
Soil Drainage. Add peat moss, compost, aged manure or humus tiled in the soil to absorb moisture better. To make soil drain away water better, you can add perlite, sand, chopped straw or composted manure.