10 Essential Spring Gardening Tasks
There is so much excitement around Springtime! For most gardeners, Spring is their favourite time to be out in the garden watching it transform from dormant green and brown into a kaleidoscope of colour and activity.
Before Spring really hits, there are many jobs to be done to prepare your garden for the busy growing period ahead. Here is our garden checklist of Ten Essential Gardening Tasks to do this Spring.
Garden checklist of things to do in the garden during Spring:
- Check over your garden, plan your garden, and set up irrigation
Start by inspecting your garden and repairing anything broken, damaged or dysfunctional. Then plot out your plantings. Our Garden planner tool can help you estimate how many plants you need to fill out a particular space. Try it for free here.
Now is also a great time to plan any irrigation you wish to add to your garden beds so as to not disturb or damage young plants once planted. - Order your Propagation and seed supplies
Once you know what you want to plant, order any supplies and seeds you require to get your garden started. Check out the list at the bottom of this article of varieties perfect for sowing in Spring. Be sure to check our new products page in Spring too for the latest varieties perfect for Spring sowing
- Start sowing indoors
September, whilst technically Spring may not see suitable temperatures for sowing seeds out in the garden. Ideally, you need to wait until the soil temperature is more consistent and any risk of frost has gone. You can get a jump start on Spring sowing by starting seeds indoors using a mini greenhouse, heatpad and Jiffy soil pellets. Jiffy pellets and pots allow you to plant out your seedlings without the risk of transplant shock as you plant the pot into the ground with the seedling. Check out our Jiffy products and propagation accessories here.
- Sharpen your tools
Make sure your gardening tools are up to the task ahead by ensuring they are sharp and well-oiled before you hit the garden. Check out our tool maintenance article here. - Test soil
Soil should contain all the nutrients your plants need to thrive but in reality, differences in pH, soil type and previous use of the soil cause deficiencies so you may need to add nutrients to your soil to balance it. Start by testing your soil PH so that you know where to start. Learn more in our fertiliser article here.
- Turn compost, use in garden if ready
If you composted all those Autumn leave sand food scraps earlier in the year, you should now have some beautiful rich compost to add to the garden in Spring. Your compost is complete once you can no longer distinguish individual materials and it has an earthy pleasant smell. You can add your new compost around existing plantings in a fine layer, or mix it into your empty garden beds to add organic matter to your soil. Learn more about Composting here. - Dig in green manure crops and add organic matter
If you took advantage of growing a green manure crop during the cooler season, now is the time to dig it into the top layer of soil. Ideally you need to dig in your green manure crop 2-4 weeks before you start planting out so make this a priority early in the season so your bed is ready when your seedlings are ready to plant out. Learn More about Green Manure Crops here.
- Remove weeds and apply mulch
Now is the time to get in and remove any weeds that have grown in the bare soil over the cooler months. Just be aware, weeds also have seeds and if left to flower, you may now have dormant weed seeds in your soil too, we call this your soils ‘seed bank’.
Unfortunately, come Springtime when you start giving your soil more attention, this awakens the seed bank and you may end up growing more weeds, so mulching your garden beds is a good idea. This will shade out many weeds and also helps keep your soil moist and at a stable temperature throughout the warmer months. Learn more about how to combat your soil’s seed bank here.
- Pruning, hedging and edging
Most pruning happens just after fruiting and flowering, or during dormancy in the cooler months so there shouldn’t be much to do at the beginning of Spring, be sure to prune before buds appear or you may risk damaging new growth or removing blooms. Here are our ten rules for pruning.
Spring however is the ideal time to get the hedges and edges in order. Hedging sparks new growth and is vital for ensuring enough light can penetrate your hedge for nice full, bushy plants. Nice sharp edges add a whole new level of order to a garden and help to stop grass creeping into garden beds. Learn more about hedging and edging here. - Plant out seeds, seedlings, and Summer bulbs
Once the garden is in order, now it is time to start planting out!
What to plant in Spring?
Vegetable varieties to start early indoors:
Capsicum, Tomatoes, Chilli and Cucumber. Plant these out in the garden when the risk of frost has passed and when the soil is consistently warm at around 20 degrees Celsius.
Vegetable varieties to sow in Spring:
Once the risk of frost has passed and the soil is consistently warm at around 20 degrees celsius it’s time to sow Sweet Corn, Cucumber, Carrots, Beans, Beetroot, Capsicum, Eggplant, Leek, Silverbeet, Lettuce, Melons, Pumpkin and Zucchini.
It’s also the ideal time of the year to sow herbs and all of your favourites thrive at this time of year. Most will allow first pickings in as little as 6-8 weeks and then provide an abundance throughout the Summer and following Autumn.
There is a huge range of flowers perfect for sowing in Spring, some of our favourites are Sunflowers, Petunias, Zinnias, Dahlias and Marigolds.
Some Summer produce Bulbs and Flowering Bulbs can also still be planted at this time of year. Flowering bulbs such as Oriental Lilies, Dahlias, Hippeastrum and Calla Lilies are suitable for planting in September and October, these will flower in the Summer.
Produce bulbs such as Potatoes, Asparagus, Berry canes and crowns, Shallots, and Rhubarb may also be planted this time of year for fruiting in the Summer and Autumn months.
So, as you can see there are many things to do in the garden during Spring. We hope this Garden checklist and all our Spring gardening tips help you with your Spring garden.
For a comprehensive list of what vegetables to plant in Spring, check out our seed list here.
For a list of flower seed varieties to plant in Spring, check out our list here.
For more growing advice on how to start a vegetable garden or how to garden in Spring, visit our Help and Advice Section here.
