What are you waiting for? Get growing!

It’s spring . . . YAY! Time to get outside and, for many of us, get in the garden.

Even if you haven’t the greenest of thumbs, there are plenty of things that you can do to get your garden ready for summer. Following are some tips to help you get started.

8 ways to help your garden grow

Make a plan. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the garden centre’s selection, but a plan helps from getting too few or too many seeds. Veggies or flowers, perennials or annuals, doesn’t matter – just come up with a course of action. Grab your pen and paper and start plotting things out.

Prep your soil. If you’re a seasoned veteran, your gardening area may be well prepped already, but if you’re just starting, it’s likely you’ll have to work it a bit. Organically rich soil is usually dark brown. Some good compost and/or aged mushroom manure added into your own soil will do wonders. Mixing it in will also help loosen the ground, creating space for roots.

Trim branches in the early spring. And shape shade trees then, too. This will allow them to heal over the coming season.

Weed your beds early and often. Get ahead of the game when the seedlings of weedy plants are just getting established. Hopefully, this prep work will make summer care easier as fewer of the weed seedlings will get established.

Establish a good cover of mulch on garden beds. This will work to conserve moisture, reduce weeds and keep the soil cooler during summer’s heat.

Attract helpful critters. Think about adding “bee hotels,” and hummingbird and butterfly feeders to attract these helpful pollinators to your garden.

Prune or deadhead those early flowering shrubs. Late spring is a good time to tidy up shrubs once they have finished flowering. When pruning, thin out older wood to improve the plant’s form and vigour. 

Set up a deep-watering schedule for summer. This can help promote good root development so plants can better withstand dry spells. Water early in the morning with a deep soaking of two to three centimetres of water once a week.

Now get out there and grow!

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