5 Spring Gardening Tips Every Beginner Should Know

Level up your gardening game with five spring gardening tips, and become an Alan Titchmarsh or Anna Pavord of the garden.

Now that spring is here, your garden is ripe for transformation into a paradise. The soil is fertile, and the sun is shining. All that's missing are your skillful hands, perceptive eyes, and of course, protected from the sun by a Panama Hat. 

1. Get a Lay of the Land

Familiarize yourself with your garden before tending to it. Note tree limbs that need to be cabled or removed. Hire an arborist to take care of the bigger trees.

Cut down the remaining foliage and put it in a compost pile. Focus on the ground, too, by raking mulch from beds with bulbs before there's foliage. After the soil warms up, refresh the mulch in other planting areas.

Finally, check that your steps, fences, and pathways haven't been harmed by thawing or freezing.

2. Prepare to Garden

Get ready before you get to gardening. Tune your tools up. Sharpen your bypass pruners.

Sand, clean, and massage your wooden handles with linseed oil. Keep track of the tools you don't have, and order the tools you need. While you're at it, shield yourself from the springtime sun with a protective Panama hat.

3. Plant New Flora

Spring is a time of new beginnings. Give your garden new life by refreshing the lawn, preparing fresh beds, and planting container-grown plants.

Start with your grass—service your lawnmower and leaf blower. You may even be able to sharpen the mower blades yourself.

Replenish your mower's oil, lubricate its moving parts, and replace the spark plugs. 

You should also make new planting beds where one hasn't been before. Simply dig the soil and add compost and similar amendments to facilitate the making of a living, rich soil.

Last but not least, plant container-grown plants. Water them generously both before and after planting. Consider sowing seeds of poppies, sweet peas, and calendula. 

4. Fertilize and Compost

Jumpstart your garden's growth with some balanced fertilizer or fish emulsion around fresh outgrowths of vegetation. Spread pine-needle mulch and high-acid fertilizer around camellias, azaleas, or blueberries.

Get a compost pile going or use a compost bin if you don't already.

5. Clean and Mulch

If you have bird feeders and baths, clean them thoroughly. And there's no such thing as adding mulch too often.

Refresh the garden with an additional layer of mulch. Straw, wood chips, or finished compost will do the job. It'll improve the garden's looks, retain moisture, and suppress weeds.

Timely Spring Gardening Tips

To enter the season of spring is to spring forth from a time of hibernation and stagnation. The icicles of winter melt and become dew drops on a flower's petals, cooling them in the heat of the April sun.

You, however, keep the sun away from your face and cool off in a Panama Hat. Maybe that's the most important of the spring gardening tips.