Growing Season
How to be successful this gardening season
Dust off your garden gnomes! Spring is just around the corner (we hope!), and gardeners across the country are counting down the days. Here are three quick ways to prepare for the season!
Plan for success
Whether your passion is growing your own food, prefer ornamental landscaping, or both, creating a plan is your first step. Take stock of last year's successes and failures and adjust this year's plan accordingly.
Here are a few of my go-to apps and sites for gardening:
Gardeners.com offers a kitchen garden planner.
Gardena.com offers a garden planner for landscaping.
Don't forget about the trusted Old Farmer's Almanac Planting Calendar, your local guide to knowing when to plant specific plants to ensure optimal growth and production.
Once you have a plan, make a list of what you'll need to purchase. Seeds or seedlings? Will you need soil amendments? Which plants you've been eying in nurseries?
If you're unsure how much soil you'll need, check out the soil calculator online at Gardeners.com.
Tools
If you're like many gardeners, your shovels, shears, and other tools have been sitting in the shed since last season. A soapy rinse and soak paired with a scrub brush. Wooden handles? Give them a light sanding to remove splinters.
Pruning shears are the workhorses of any garden, so ensure that yours are in top shape before spring rolls around. Soak shears in white vinegar overnight to remove rust, then scrub with a wire brush. Dried sap? Use warm water and dish soap to loosen it up. Dull blades? A file or whetstone will get them sharp again. Finally, disinfect your shears and other tools with rubbing alcohol or a bleach solution.
Clean your containers
Are you planning to reuse last year's flowerpots? They, too, will require good scrubbing and disinfecting.
Dump out any soil and debris from each pot and grab that wire brush. Fill a bucket with warm, soapy water and scrub the pots inside and out. Create a 10 percent bleach solution and soak each pot for about 15 minutes; bleach helps kill any unwanted organisms. Rinse with water and set outside to dry.
Get these chores done now, and you can hit the ground running when the warmer weather rolls around. I would love to see pictures of your garden creations - tag me on the gram' (@molliewaychoff)!!
Happy planting 🌿🌻
