Spring garden prep made fun again….

As we anticipate spring’s arrival, there’s no reason to twiddle our green thumbs while waiting. Let’s get a jumpstart with spring garden prep.

Getting a few chores checked off our to-do list is vital. This will free up time doing more enjoyable gardening activities when the time comes. Planting indoor seeds, anyone?

Like a lightswitch. It seems like spring comes in an instant, and there is so much to plan and do! One day it’s snowing, the next is sunny and warm.

Like magic, the ground finally thaws and the soil is workable. So don’t fall behind!

Read more: Spring garden prep made fun again….

Clean gardening tools

Before using gardening tools, you should clean them for the ideal spring garden prep.

If there are pathogens that could cause disease or an infestation, it’s smart to disinfect tools prior to use on plants and in your soil. Cleaning tools will also prolong the life of the tool.

Prevention is key! Wait until tasks need to get done, and you will be tempted to grab a tool and go to work.

First, remove all dirt and grime with a wire brush. Next, wash them with warm, soapy water. Disinfect shears, pruners, loppers, hand tools, and shovels with 70% alcohol to prevent disease spread.

Dry thoroughly before you return them to the garage. As a last step, you can apply oil, linseed oil, or mineral oil to prevent rust. Both act as a natural, eco-friendly barrier against moisture on metal.

Linseed oil also protects wooden handles from drying out.

While I only clean my tools with soap once a year, in between uses, I sometimes use disinfecting wipes to sterilize. Example: I use wipes on pruners from rose bush to rose bush to prevent possible contamination.

Sort seeds for spring garden prep

This tip is a bit painful. But this time of year, I like to go through my bin of seeds and purge expired seeds.

Yes. I’d agree that expired seeds can still sprout and flourish, but germination rates go way down the more expired they are. It also depends on how they have been stored, hopefully in a dark and dry place.

Mine are kept in a sealed plastic bin down in the basement. Low humidity is essential.

So any seeds older than 5 years get dumped. It’s sad, but it must be done. Some must get dumped sooner. Certain crops like beans, peas, carrots, leeks, mesclum, corn, onion and lettuce usually hit the curb after that third year.

I tend to keep my annuals, cucumbers, and zucchini a little longer. I always force myself to consider this: planting seeds takes effort. Why waste time, seed soil, seeds trays on seeds that won’t germinate?

Overall, seeds are cheap. So dumping seeds and buying new ones makes sense. A better solution is to curb my seed-buying enthusiasm in spring- I only let myself buy packets that will get used within two weeks.

Prep pots and window boxes for spring garden prep

It’s a great time to finish garden tasks that were left undone in the fall. Winter came too fast!

For me, one of these is weeding pots, planters, and window boxes. My long-dead annuals sure look like scarecrows at this point.

When annuals arrive at the garden centers, I want to be ready to plant them. It’s also a good time to crumble the soil and give it a good shake-up. Loosening the soil prepares it for all those small roots soon to come.

All the dead plant fragments can go right into your compost.

As a final move, it’s time to replace or add potting soil to all your planters. If it’s been more than three years, I like to dump the pots into the veggie garden.

If it’s been only 1-2 years, I dump the top half of the pot into the landscaping and add fresh potting soil to the upper half. This makes the plants happy and more likely to thrive. Even potting soil gets depleted quickly.

Buy a few pairs of gardening gloves…

Now is a good time to invest in gardening gloves. Every serious gardener needs them for pruning, weeding, mulching, tilling, and more. Gardening can stain your hands and cause unnecessary blisters. Ouch!

Gloves should fit well, not too tight and not too loose, and be thick enough to protect your hands. Of course, you don’t want them to be too thick either, or you won’t be able to maneuver small objects.

Thinner gloves tend to rip easily and get holes fast. But too thick, and pulling out tinier weeds is hard.

Cloth gloves with leather reinforcements hold up well to general garden tasks. I just bought a pair of these myself. The leather palm makes them more durable and less likely to rip.

But cloth gloves can get soaked; no one wants wet hands. Neoprene gloves are ideal when you have garden tasks (hose work or wet soil) that saturate the gloves. Buy them in multiples to save money.

Finally, it’s also good to own at least one pair of gloves with extra-long cuffs. This will protect your wrists and lower arms from branches and thorns.

Clean your garage by donating and purging..

When I survey my garage, I think….why is it so messy? But with four kids and countless pets, it makes sense.

Time to reassess what we need. Nothing worse than looking for a tool and not finding it because of the mess.

Now for action. I’m methodically going through my garage. If I haven’t used something in five years, it’s unlikely I ever will. Time to purge.

First, I’m calling out the garbage. Stuff so bad it can’t even be donated. As gardeners, we lean on the frugal side. It also lends itself to hoarding if not careful.

I finally threw out a rusty shovel with a broken and rotted handle. I’m not going to fix it. I wouldn’t expect anyone else to fix it. Even in its prime, it wasn’t a great shovel. So many other examples of stuff I purged.

A second better option is donation. It’s taken me 20 years to learn this lesson: just because something is useful doesn’t mean it’s useful to me.

Time to pass it on to someone who will actually use it. We’ve had two carloads of stuff.

Finish the garage with Facebook Marketplace…

Finally. Facebook Marketplace. It’s not perfect. But it works! Through blogging, I get great stuff that I sell. But I get all weird about selling new stuff. Like, I have no right to sell it and should gift it to someone.

I have to give myself a pep talk that it’s okay to sell it. That money is going straight to my high grocery bill.

And you probably have new and gently used items that, for whatever reason, just didn’t work for you. Sell it and move on! So freeing.

Four years ago, Tom bought these black and gold modern wall sconces. I hated them! Three days ago, I sold the set for $45.

Obviously, a lot lower than what we paid. But we still recouped some of our money. At least they are no longer taking up room in our garage.

The above picture is of wall fixtures that we purchased for $5 each at a lighting close-out sale. Since they are designer grade, I think I might easily recoup the loss and then some.

But the space in my garage? Priceless.