Get Your Garden Spring Ready With These Afternoon Projects
By Nory Simoneaux
Spring is just around the corner, and here in Wilmington, NC, we are lucky to already have more warm days on record than cold for 2017. With the sun shining bright the buzz around town is gardening. I would love to share a few ways to get your garden and yard spring ready. These afternoon projects will get the family outside and the yard primed for the good times ahead!
1. Make a plan! It is so important to have an end goal in mind. Do you want to be on the Historic Home Tour for The Azalea Festival, or do you want to grow the herbs your family will use? No matter the scope of what you want to do, have fun with it and involve the whole family.
2. Get to weeding! Divide the yard or garden into sections and give everyone their own area that they are responsible for. Along with pulling the weeds it is a great opportunity to do some raking to really aerate things. End the day with some fertilizing.
3. It never fails that around June every year I remember that some of my favorite flowers and vegetables should have been planted months earlier. With that in mind I present to you a cheat sheet of what you should be planting in March: daisies, marigolds, petunias, tomatoes, squash, peppers and cucumbers. Mid to late March is the perfect time to go ahead and get these in the ground. Be sure to cover if we have a late frost, but I am being optimistic and don’t think we will!
4. Create a clean looking boundary. A garden that is well defined looks so professional and crisp, and also helps your grass to not grow over any of your plants! You can buy pre-made borders at your local hardware store or get creative. I have seen some impressive borders made from wine bottles, old plates, bricks, and even repurposed wood.
5. Any potted plants that made it through the winter deserve some love come this time of year. Remove the plants and give them a new lease on life with some fresh soil! Some plants didn’t make it? Consider using those pots to plant perennials that are known to do well in our area like daylilies, butterfly bushes, peonies, liatris or geraniums.
6. Start composting. This is a great habit to get your family into. Not only is it great for the environment, it produces some truly amazing garden soil. Have a small sealed bucket on your counter (they are really cute these days) or under your sink that you put vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds and eggshells into. When your smaller bin fills up empty it into your larger compost pile outside. You can either have a section of yard as large or small as you like or an actual compost bin (again, super cute). You will want to mix it up every so often and add things like newspaper, leaves and yard clippings, but other that that it is a pretty headache free way to guarantee yourself some great soil. 1001gardens.org has some great ideas to get you going!
7. A sure fire way to make sure your yard is summer ready? Plan a party! My family loves to host outdoor get-togethers throughout the spring and summer. I find that is a great motivator for getting our yard in check!
I hope these tips have you excited for the season to come. I know that I for one will be getting my hands dirty every chance I get!
Nory’s Green Nest is an ongoing series. View the previous installment here.
Nory Simoneaux is a broker with Nest Realty Wilmington. With an eye for detail and great passion for customer service, Nory strives to handle each transaction how she would for a close friend or family member.