Gardening Tips for Springtime

With summer well on its way, it’s time to start preparing your outdoor landscape for sunnier days ahead. At Georgian Sands, we love when our homeowners creatively use their outdoor space to create their own outdoor oasis. It’s also a great family activity—it’s always fun to watch your garden grow! If you’re thinking of starting a garden this year, check out some of our best tips to start your growing season strong.

Plan and Prepare

Gardening is a master class in the art of preparation and patience, so of course your first step should be planning. If you plan on planting large vined plants, it’s best to build the supports in before they start to grow. Take some time to make a plan of attack and ask yourself these basic questions when preparing your garden:

• Do I want a veggie garden, flower garden, or both?
• Do I want to start seeds myself or buy plants?
• What do I love to grow and eat?

Answering these three questions will help you plan a fruitful garden.

Build Your Compost

When you’re planning out your garden beds, don’t forget to consider saving a spot for a compost pile. Composting is a great way to reduce your environmental footprint and fertilize your plants in an inexpensive way. While you can compost almost anywhere, it’s best to start on bare earth. The most fundamental rule of thumb for this science is to use one-third green and two-thirds brown materials. What are brown and green materials?

• Green:
• Fruit and vegetable scraps
• Lawn & garden weeds
• Table Scraps
• Coffee grounds
• Brown
• Shredded paper
• Dryer lint
• Corn cobs, stalks
• Newspaper

Remember to gently cover your compost pile to help accelerate the decomposition process; every few weeks mix your compost to reintroduce oxygen and break down the materials for better soil absorption. There’s so much more to learn about composting—including what you shouldn’t put in your pile—so feel free to read this article from Earth Easy to get more information before you start.

Help the Bees

Whether you’re starting a flower garden or a vegetable garden, bees are an integral part of any garden’s ecosystem. Encouraging bees to visit your garden will help grow your fruits and veggies and support all the wildlife around your home. Help support the bees and grow a beautiful garden by ordering some seed packets for your household. Check out the Bring Back the Bees program from Cheerios to obtain your free packet of sunflower seeds.

Bonus: 3 veggies you can plant now and eat soon!

Lettuce 
Lettuce and other leafy greens grow quickly and easily from seed and can be harvested in as little as 45 to 50 days.

Onions
Plant onions about two inches apart. After about six weeks you can harvest every other one for use as green onions while the bulbs continue to grow underground.

Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts
These hearty veggies thrive in cool spring weather and should be planted early to take advantage of warm days and cool nights. Harvest will occur from late June to late July if planted now!

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