Smart Gardening Tips

Snowdrops stand guard over tiny daffodil buds. Daylight is lingering a bit longer. The snow is receding and the robins are returning. The big thaw has begun. There’s no denying the signs. Spring is right around the corner.

If you’re like me, you can’t wait to get your hands into the soil. While you’re holding out for higher temperatures, there’s plenty you can do today to jumpstart the spring gardening season.

Sow Seeds Indoors

Take a trip to your local nursery or home store and buy seeds to start indoors. In March I like to start annual flowers for my pots and containers. Currently, I have Coleus, Zinnias, Impatiens, Petunias and Marigolds germinating. Follow the seed packet instructions and you’ll get excellent results. Some plants will take longer than others to bloom or bear fruit, so plan accordingly. This is also a great time for starting culinary herbs and vegetables. If you’re looking for something new this year, try moonflower vine or cathedral bells to climb your fence or trellis. Both can be started from seed. If you have children, get them involved. Many children have a natural affinity for gardening. It’s a great quality to encourage and nurture in them.

Dust Off The Birdhouses

I put my birdhouses out in early March. Small birds like chickadees will be actively searching for appropriate homes to raise their families. Mine were up for less than 24 hours before the home tours began.

Give Your Garden Tools A Checkup

Take your pruning shears and other cutting tools to your local hardware store for cleaning, oiling and a good sharpening. On a warm day you may want to assess your lawnmower. Take it in for servicing or a tune up now-while you can. Many lawnmower repair centers are swamped shortly after the season starts. It’s one tool you don’t want to be without.

Get Inspired

Order your garden catalogs. Purchase your favorite garden magazines. Here in the northeast, there’s nothing like winter time to remind me how valuable my summer garden space is. Create a wish list of new plants, design features and outdoor furniture. With a little planning, you won’t be overwhelmed when May rolls around.

Seek Out Indoor Gardening Events

In March there are countless indoor garden, flower and landscaping expos. If you can’t find anything in your local area, a day or weekend trip to a flower show might be just what you need. Look for a botanical garden or arboretum with indoor facilities. In my area we have Longwood Gardens. It has year round indoor gardens and the displays are fantastic.

Clean Out Your Beds

As soon as the snow has melted and the weather permits, you can clean out your beds. It’s a good time to rake and clear your planting areas of dead branches, leaves and debris. I like to mulch as soon as possible in the spring, while there’s still plenty of space between the emerging bedding plants.

Learn A Landscape Design Software Program

There are so many inexpensive landscaping software programs available today, many of them under $50.00US. During the winter months you’ll have plenty of time to learn how to operate the system.

Create and sample new designs before digging. Take advantage of the overhead and 360 degree views. Many of the programs now offer a 3D walk through feature. It simulates the experience of walking through an actual garden. You can also advance the garden timeline into the future to see what it will look like when the plants and trees mature. It’s a wonderful creative tool to beat the winter blues!

Call Your Landscaper Now

If you’re planning to use a professional landscaper this year, make sure to schedule your work as far in advance as possible. When the ground is soft enough for digging, landscapers will be working overtime to keep up with the volume.

Book Your Garden Tours Now

Scour the internet for local and regional garden tours. Find out when tickets go on sale and plan ahead. I’ve often read announcement lists in the newspaper after I’ve already made other plans. There’s nothing like visiting other people’s gardens for encouragement and inspiration.

I hope these suggestions get you motivated to take action. The sooner you get started on your garden plans-the more time you’ll have to enjoy the rest of the season. Happy Gardening!

© 2007 John Conti



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You do not need to spend a fortune making your garden look beautiful. Follow these landscaping tips and your yard will be admired and appreciated by all.

Start by drawing up your plans of how you want the garden to look based on the layout of your home. Consider where the sun is at various times of the day in relation to the walls and foundations of your house, and any trees or other structures in and around the neighborhood which may affect your garden planning.

Set up a budget for the project after you find out how much it is going to cost to finish the project. Be sure to include in your budget both softscape and hardscape items such as trees and plants, rockeries, fountains and walls.

You might decide that you want to hire a professional who provides this service, as they will know a lot more about it than you do. Whether you use the experts or draw up your own landscaping plans, you can always ask someone more experienced for their opinion on what you intend to do. This may well save you both time and money in the long run.

Landscaping a garden takes both time and discipline. In order to save your whole garden from looking like a building site, it is best to do your landscaping in phases. This way the cost is kept down and you can make changes to the plan as you go along, if necessary.

By buying the materials you will need during the off seasons you can save money. Shrubs and soil cost less when you buy late on in the season, just as wood costs less during the winter months than the summer.

Landscaping your garden is carried out with the long term view in mind, so it is not always a good idea to buy the cheapest products on the market. Paying a little more is likely to provide you with materials which are less easily damaged and will not need to be regularly replaced.

There are many places where you can buy your garden supplies. Look at the local stores and what they have to offer as well as surfing the net for your gardening equipment and make some price comparisons of what is available.

Once your landscaping is completed, it does not end there. You will need to properly maintain your garden throughout the year. This you can do by yourself or by taking on a gardener to give you a hand.



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the things that I hear quite often from friends and family is that they find Winter creeps up on them and they regret not doing any preparation work in the garden to ensure that it still looks its best during the Winter months.

It is essential that you prepare your garden for Winter, not only to ensure that it looks good, but also preparation for Winter means that the work you will be required to carry out to ensure a successful Spring will be reduced because you will have to do less rescue work for example with less hardy plants after having ensured they survive the Winter unscathed.

The right time to start doing this preparation work is when you find the weather forecaster starting to talk about the possibility of frost more often than not. In the UK this will tend to be around the end of October.

Before getting to work in the garden its worth taking a step back and reviewing how happy you were with your garden over the previous year. Work out what you enjoyed about your garden and what you think could be improved. At this time of year it is the perfect time to think about moving things around into areas of the garden where they may work better or even remove things altogether if they didn’t work. You can also start planting bulbs ready for an explosion of colour in the Spring.

Another thing you need to ensure you do is tidy things up in the garden. Make sure you do the weeding and look out for diseased leaves which should be removed. Try and resist the urge to prune too much though. If you have bulbs in the ground that are less than hardy varieties then you need to remove them and let them dry in the sun for a while before storing them in the garage or shed to protect them from the Winter frosts and snows.

Another great tip, if you don’t have one, is to start a compost bin at this time of year. Throw in any cuttings you have as well as dried fallen leaves (avoid any diseased ones though) and by the time next season comes around again you will have a fantastic compost ready for use.

Before Winter really sets in and the ground freezes solid, it is a good idea to give it a good watering as even though snow may lie on the ground for a while, it could be a significant time before it melts and so this can lead to drying out of the ground.

Finally, take the time to clean all your garden tools. Do the sharpening and oil any moving parts that require it. Make sure they are all in top condition and then store them in a suitable location. That way, there will be no frustrations around finding the right tool or other tools not working properly when next season arrives.

It’s not all doom and gloom if you don’t do all of this garden preparation work for the Winter but if you do carry it out, come Spring, you will be very glad you did.

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