Preparing Your Garden for Spring in Cape May County, NJ

Spring is here and it’s time to start getting ready to make your Cape May County garden look the best it’s ever been.

Even before the planting begins, there are a lot of things you can do to prepare for the upcoming season. March and early April are the perfect times to start!

Here are 4 easy tips to get started:

1 .Start with a thorough cleaning.

Winter always brings plenty of debris and leaves into a yard, not to mention creating a lot of dead plant matter. Depending on the size of your yard, this can be a big task, so it’s best to start early and just chip away at it over weekends and in your free time.

Along with cleaning up your flower beds, you should also check and clean your tools, pottery and other accessories carefully. Pottery may have cracked or been damaged. Tools and accessories could become damaged or could have become home to pests over the winter, just waiting to hatch as temperatures warm. Clean all your clippers, trowels and small accessories with a mild bleach/water solution and allow to air dry. Pottery deemed good to go, should have some new soil mixed in with any old still in pot or add some organic dry fertilizer to old soil to replenish any lost nutrients.

2. Fertilize

Once you are all cleaned up, it’s a great time to apply a general organic fertilizer. Plant Tone is a great choice for all your shrubs and flowers. Spread generously around the base of all your evergreens and perennials . In areas where summer flowers are to be planted, spread along the top of the soil and allow the rain to soak it into the ground.

3. Mulch

After you rake up and clean up all of Mother Nature’s winter leftovers and have fertilized, you are ready to mulch! A good application of mulch will insulate your plants, hold in moisture and give you that crisp clean look that has been lacking all winter.

4. Check your planting supplies

Before all those beautiful new summer annuals catch your eye and wind up in your car, make sure you have all the necessary goodies on hand to plant them. Check to see if you have potting soils, weekly fertilizers, clippers and trowels, and gardening gloves. If not, pick those items up early so you have more room in your trunk for plant material.

For more information on garden preparation and best practices call Country Greenery at 609 465 2694 and we will be happy to assist you!

Good luck, planting season is just around the corner.