{"id":1331,"date":"2016-03-23T09:39:07","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T13:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/falconcresthomes.com\/blog\/?p=1331"},"modified":"2021-07-21T07:16:14","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T11:16:14","slug":"getting-your-garden-ready-for-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/falconcresthomes.com\/blog\/getting-your-garden-ready-for-spring\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Tips for Getting your Garden Ready for Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Spring is just around the corner; the days are getting longer, and the weather is warming up. It\u2019s time for gardening enthusiasts to prepare their gardens for spring. Below are five tips for getting your garden ready for spring.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1.Clean up the Yard and Garden<\/span><\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/h3>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first step to getting your garden ready for spring is to remove the winter debris, leaves and dead grass from your lawn and garden and then loosen up the open patches of soil. Both these things will aerate the soil into the root zone. Next remove last year\u2019s annuals and the dead foliage from the perennial plants, ornamental grasses, etc. \u00a0Place all of this debris in your compost bin. \u00a0Other clean up jobs include weeding (do not put in the compost pile) and scrubbing out the bird and butterfly boxes so that pests, mold, and bacteria won\u2019t harm these garden friendly creatures<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">2. Inspect and Prune the Shrubs<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Early spring pruning of shrubs and small trees will help maintain their good form and hardiness. Also, some shrubs only bloom on new branches, so pruning is needed to encourage the plant to send out new flowering branches. \u00a0Shrubs should also be inspected for winter burn or mites. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">3. Begin Fertilization<\/h3>\n<p>Next to sun and water, fertilization is the most important thing in spring gardening. \u00a0To determine how much fertilizer the soil needs, it is worthwhile to get it tested. If the soil is already rich, just top with a bit of compost, manure or fertilizer. \u00a0\u00a0When preparing a vegetable garden, the soil should be turned to a depth of 15 inches and then mixed with manure and compost, \u00a0which will supply valuable nutrients to the vegetables throughout the growing season. \u00a0Spring is also a good time to fertilize evergreens because they are actively growing at this time<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">4. \u00a0Check Mulch<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mulch is essential to spring gardening preparation because it helps the garden conserve water, cool the plant\u2019s roots, feed the soil and smother weeds. \u00a0Mulch comes in two categories: \u00a0natural, such as straw, hay, compost, composted bark, or pine needles and synthetic, such as plastics and papers.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span>5. \u00a0Start \u00a0Seedlings and Prepare Pots<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Freshen up your old pots and containers by turning the soil and adding compost and a slow release fertilizer. \u00a0Or purchase and prepare a new self-watering planter that contains a built-in reservoir that draws water to the roots as needed for up to two weeks. \u00a0A little maintenance tip for the busy gardener. \u00a0And, finally, start collecting small containers to start your seedlings growing so they are ready to plant as soon as the last frost occurs<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For more tips on getting your garden ready for spring<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> visit the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.falconcresthomes.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Falconcrest Homes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/falconcresthomes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook page<\/a>!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spring is just around the corner; the days are getting longer, and the weather is warming up. It\u2019s time for gardening enthusiasts to prepare their gardens for spring. Below are five tips for getting your garden ready for spring. 1.Clean up the Yard and Garden<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[91,88,90,89],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/falconcresthomes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/falconcresthomes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/falconcresthomes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/falconcresthomes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/falconcresthomes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1331"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/falconcresthomes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3457,"href":"http:\/\/falconcresthomes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions\/3457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/falconcresthomes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/falconcresthomes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/falconcresthomes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}