5 TOP TASKS TO PREPARE YOUR GARDEN FOR SPRING
Spring is officially here in Indianapolis, even though it's been a bit chilly lately. Fortunately, our temperatures are on the way up, and it's time to start thinking about some of those spring yard care activities that help set our gardens up for a great growing season.
These five tasks will help get your yard on its way to a successful growing season. We've even included a couple of projects that can be done indoors for those cold, windy, or rainy days when working outside doesn't seem like much fun.
1. HOUSEKEEPING FOR THE BIRDS
If you've been feeding the birds this winter, now is an excellent time to give your feeders a good cleaning. Next time they're empty, bring them inside and give them a good scrub with hot soapy water, rinsing with a diluted bleach solution to kill any bacteria. Let them dry completely before putting them back out. Bird feeders should be sanitized 2-3 times per year to help prevent the spread of diseases in bird populations. If your birds are quite demanding, you may only want to do one feeder at a time so that they still have access to a food source.
This week is also a good time to clean out any birdhouses you might have in your yard to give nesting birds a clean place to set up a house. Just make sure to keep a close eye on your birdhouses before you get started to make sure no birds have already moved in. Similar to bird feeders, it's a good idea to sanitize birdhouses to prevent the spread of disease. Remove any old nesting material and mess, then give the house a good scrub with a bleach solution, 1 part bleach to 9 parts water. Make sure to scrub around entrances, perches, and the inside walls. Rinse thoroughly, and then let the house dry in the sun for several hours before remounting it. This task can also be done in the fall.
2. CLEAN YOUR GARDENING ACCESSORIES
Before you start gardening in earnest, now is a great time to clean up all your garden accessories. Clean, sharpen, and oil commonly used supplies like pruners and trimmers. If you're the mechanical type, this is also a great time to give your lawn mower a tune-up with an oil change, a filter cleaning, and maybe a new spark plug. Take the time to clean the underside of the deck and sharpen the blade.
It's also important to clean any pots and containers that you may want to plant fruits, veggies, or flowers in this year. If they've been sitting for a while, you may want to let them soak in soapy water for a few hours, then give them a good scrub and rinse them in a bleach solution to kill any bacteria. We recommend sanitizing your pots once a year to prevent the spread of any diseases from plant to plant.
3. SPRING PRUNING
Several species of trees and shrubs should be pruned in the spring. Generally speaking, anything that flowers in mid-summer should get pruned around now. Anything that flowers in spring should get a good pruning right after they finish flowering. Trees and shrubs to prune this spring include Apple, Cherry, Plum, Crabapple, Clematis, Roses, Potentilla, Butterfly Bush, and Boxwood.
Look for dead, dying, or diseased branches to clip out. We'll have more spring pruning tips coming in the next blog, so stay tuned!
4. CLEAN YOUR GUTTERS
It might be everyone's least favorite task, but it is necessary. Fall and winter leaves, evergreen needles, and various other debris have been collecting in our gutters and eavestroughs for the past several months. It's wet and dirty, but it's a necessary task to keep the foundation of your house dry and safe from water. Grab a ladder, some gloves, a small trowel, and a pail, and start scooping that muck out! When your gutters are clear, rainwater can flow freely away from your house or into your rain barrels.
Safety first, though! This is a two-person task. Before getting to the gutters, make sure you've got someone on hand to steady the ladder for you.
5. AERATE THE LAWN
Aerating your lawn gives the roots of your grass some room to breathe and stretch while allowing rainwater to sink deeper into the soil. This is also a good time to scrape up any areas of patchy or dead grass and put down new grass seed.
If you need any tools or supplies to get started on these spring yard cleanup projects, give us a call! We are still here for you, and we are open for business. We're happy to report that garden centers have been deemed an essential service, as we grow fruits and vegetables and provide the necessary support for others to grow their own food, whether from seed or bedding plants.
We are practicing stringent safety guidelines to protect our staff and customers, so our operations have changed a little bit. We're limiting the number of people permitted in the nursery and greenhouse at one time, and we're offering phone ordering, curbside pickup, and delivery. We can also take payment over the phone to ensure a safe and completely contact-free shopping experience. Keep an eye on our website for any changes to our services or operating hours in the coming weeks.
We look forward to helping you get growing for another season!