Creative Ways to Prepare Your Garden for Spring

Spring is quickly approaching and with the days getting longer it’s time to start prepping your garden for the growing season. The quieter winter months are the perfect time to start sowing seed and nurture your garden back to life. 

Here are some of the tasks you can focus on to get a head start and prepare your garden for spring. 

Plant Summer-Flowering Bulbs

If you wish to enjoy beautiful summer-blooming flowers like lillies, ranunculi or gladioli, now is the perfect time to start the planting process. Take out the bulbs and seeds you already have and inspect them for any mould or dampness to make sure they will be good to plant. 

The benefit of starting to plant summer flowers early is that you can take a rainy winter day to pay a visit to the local garden centre and pick up more seeds and bulbs.   

Start Tidying Your Flower Beds and Outdoor Planters

Cleaning your flower bed and planter from leaves and other debris will allow you to get a headstart on planting in spring as you wouldn’t have to worry about it at a later stage. 

You can also start cutting back the dead leaves and branches of deciduous shrubs to make sure they can start growing again for spring. 

Put all the dead organic matter into your compost bin to use later. If you're removing any weeds make sure to put them in your brown bin instead as their seeds can germinate in your compost pile and cause you trouble later on. 

Get Rid of Unwanted Garden Pests 

To save yourself some trouble in the coming spring and summer, now is the time to get rid of hibernating pests in your garden. Pests often like to hide in the branches of deciduous trees and shrubs or in the crowns of perennial plants, so take a close look at your shrubbery and trees. Look out for any snails, slugs or aphids that have taken shelter for the winter. 

Another common hiding spot for bugs are outdoor pots and planters. If you still haven’t cleared out last year’s pots, make sure to check for white-vine-weevil larvae. These pesky bugs live in the compost and feed on the roots of your plants. 

Install Water Butts to Collect Rainwater

If you don’t already have a water butt for rainwater collection in your garden, now is the perfect time to install one. This way you can make the most of the seasonal rainfall in winter and early spring. 

Using rainwater for watering your garden is great for the environment. During the dry months of the year water companies often have to resort to groundwater reserves, which is not only costly, but also damaging to the environment. If you collect rainwater now, you wouldn’t have to worry about watering your garden in summer. 

Additionally, certain plants such as rhododendrons and camellias thrive best with rainwater as water from the tap is slightly alkaline. 

Repair Fences and Trellis

The dull winter months are the perfect time to finally get the annoying maintenance work out of the way. You know that fence panel you’ve been meaning to repair since last summer? Or the broken trellis you wanted to replace? Getting those small repair jobs done while the weather is still grey will allow you to spend more time enjoying your garden in spring and summer. 

While fixing bits and bobs on your fence, also make sure to inspect the wood for signs of wear and tear such as weather damage or decay. This way you can address those sooner rather than later to make sure your fence is structurally sound. If you're looking to work on your fences in preparation for spring, you can visit this site.

Update Your Garden Paths

While we’re on the topic of repairs, the winter months are the perfect time to clean and update your garden paths and paving. Whether it involves replacing individual tiles or cleaning moss and algae from between the tiles, the slower months of the year are the right time to get to it. 

And if your garden paths are looking dull, then it might be time to completely revamp them. You can get as creative as you want with this by using different materials to create pathways to the different areas of the garden. There’s plenty of options, quarry tiles, flagstone paving or brick slips, the choice is all yours. 

Sow Seeds That Need a Longer Season

January to March is the perfect period to start sowing the seeds of plants that need longer to grow like peppers, aubergines, cucumbers or other vegetables. To ensure the seeds sprout and grow you’ll have to put them somewhere warm like a heated propagator or greenhouse. 

Once the weather outside is warmer and the seeds have grown into a healthy plant, you can move them outside.