If you look on Pinterest or Instagram, everyone has a beautiful garden and backyard. What you don’t see is all the planning and preparation it took to get those backyards’ photo shoot ready. With some forethought and minimal tools, you can get your garden ready for Spring.
Fruit and Vegetable Gardens
If you already have a garden from previous years, the first step will be to clear the weeds and debris that accumulated over the summer. Organic matter can either go into your compost bin or pile. Most of your effort should be to clear the weeds. If your schedule permits, plan on pulling weeds the day after a rain storm since it is easier to remove weeds from damp soil.
Once your garden bed(s) are all clear, it is time to turn the soil. Using a shovel, simply dig in a few inches and turn the soil over. Continue though the bed until you have turned over just about all the soil. It’s not that different from turning over vegetables as you sauté them. Gardening and cooking go hand-in-hand!
Add some mulch to enrich the soil. After you have turned the soil over, spread some good quality mulch and mix it into the soil. This will feed the soil so that the soil can then feed your fruit and vegetable plants that will, in turn, feed you and your family.
Maybe you would like to start a garden. Well you can follow the above steps in an unused area of your backyard or even use containers that can be purchased online or in local hardware stores.
Once you have completed the clean up or even prep a new area, you can start planting. But that’s an article for another day. Let’s get back to cleaning and prepping.
Flower beds
Have other areas of your backyard that need cleaning? How about flower beds? Do you have bushes that need pruning? Trimming them back can encourage new growth.
Rake out the leaves and organic material that has accumulated. Remember, you can add that to your compost pile. Just like with a vegetable garden, you will need to pull the weeds. In the fruit and vegetable garden you will plant new seeds, but in the flower garden you might want to fill in holes with new plants. Have you planted perennials or annuals? Do you know the difference? Perennials are will keep coming back year after year, if taken care of properly. Annuals only last one season.
You will, also, want to feed them based upon the plant type. Flower filled beds that line the backyard encourage butterflies and birds. They also provide beauty to both the eye and the nose.
Trees
Timing trees shouldn’t be intimidating, again it allows for new growth and provides shade in the heat of the summer. The tree pictured above, even has lovely flowering shrubs underneath. Those shrubs need regular pruning to keep them from taking over the tree.
Patios
And, finally, clean off your patio. It’s an extend space to your home. So much can happen on your patio during the summer. You can work from there, eat meals there, even craft there. Sweep it off. Get rid of any cob webs that may have formed over the winter months. Clean off chair cushions and wipe down the outdoor table.
So many memories are waiting to be made right in your backyard, but first things first. You need to clean up the space to enjoy it fully. Cleaning up isn’t always fun, but it is so necessary and will make the space and the memories so much better!
