Spring gardening tips

How to prepare your garden for spring

Spring gardening tips ,pre-spring garden preparation and vegetable planting schedules are always handy when the weather starts to warm, but there are a few things that you need to do before you start putting the plants and seeds into the soil.

Spring Planting Guide

The most important part of spring gardening tips and starting vegetable gardens is the layout. Some plants don’t do well next to each other. Maybe the plants both are susceptible to the same soil borne diseases or the same insects like them. Tomatoes shouldn’t be planted next to potatoes because they tend to attract the same pests. It’s always best to put plants around each other that deter each other’s pests. These are companion plants.

Of course, there are other reasons not to plant two plants close together. Large plants overshadow small plants and roots travel on some plants and squeeze out others with less vigorous systems. Herbs and marigolds are great companions to most plants, however, basil and beans don’t really like each other very well. Beans don’t care for beets cabbage, fennel, onions or radishes either.

They do like carrots, cucumbers, cauliflower, peas, potatoes, strawberries, lettuce and corn. It’s a bit like arranging a dinner party and having some guests with a history that isn’t pleasant. Most all of the plants grow well with marigolds. They keep pests out of the garden and bring in beneficial insects.

making compost for spring

Another spring garden preparation is to save your coffee cans and coffee grounds. The grounds are great to sprinkle around plants and mix with your mulch.

If you have a chance to get rotted or fermented coffee beans, then you’re one of the lucky ones. Add these to your compost pile.

Save your garbage for the coffee can where you separate those white filters from their garden grail. Do not use meat products in compost, but most everything else from the kitchen in the form of food is acceptable. If you don’t have a compost bin, don’t worry. A pile for compost works almost as well. It doesn’t stay as tidy or heat up as fast but it works.

When you mow the first time in the spring, if you have a basket that collects lawn clippings you also have another great way to build that compost pile. Don’t rake the lawn, mow the leaves and collect them for compost instead. Grass clippings won’t hurt, but sometimes they spread their seed to the garden.

Even if you haven’t started a compost pile but have a big pile of leaves, you can start as soon as you till the ground. Put the leaves on the garden, start the mower and mow over them several times to break them up in pieces. When you till the ground, turn them under, along with any coffee grounds you might have thrown on the garden after you mowed the leaves.

Gardening tips for spring can be found in the kitchen. Eggshells are another throw away item that make great sources of calcium. If you’re a serious gardener, you’ll want to test your soil. Many people that compost and add organic material instead of chemical fertilizers frequently don’t do this step.

The philosophy is that they’re not adding any one product in a concentrated form, just beefing up the soil. Speaking of chemical help, if you’re prone to achy feet and happen to have a container of Epsom’s salt, put a spoonful of it around your tomato plants. It works wonders for the tomato too.

These spring gardening tips can start before the snow melts or anytime during the season if you decide to compost away your garbage. There’s nothing better for sping gardening tips than not clogging the garbage disposal with material your plants beg to receive.

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