While it may seem unlikely while we are still in the cold clutches of winter, spring will be upon us soon. While waiting for proper planting weather can be frustrating for gardeners and landscapers, there are still many things you can do to tidy up the garden for the planting season.

First, you will want to gather your early spring landscaping supplies. Rakes, pruning shears, and shovels will all be essential to the spring garden cleaning. Stepping stones, decorative gravel paths, and retaining walls are some of the most important things to check on after winter. Making sure everything is level and in place will not only make your garden look good, but it will be safer, too. Raking up leaves and other debris that may have gotten scattered across the garden will help you maintain both your garden and your compost pile.

The early spring landscaping supplies that will be seeing the most use are your pruning shears. Any shrubs with bent, twisted, or broken twigs and branches need to be pruned, regardless of species. Roses and Hydrangeas will need to be pruned as early as March, but Azaleas and Rhododendrons should be left alone until after they blossom, as plants with plenty of life left can look deceptively dried out.

Filling in bare patches of grass with a seed and soil mixture will help your lawn to grow in evenly, and applying herbicide where you plan to plant will save you a lot of frustration later in the season. Cleaning your gutters to avoid drowning young plants and inspecting your lawnmower will save time when planting season finally arrives.

While you want to give your plants the best start you can, over-applying fertilizer or insecticides can be counter-productive. Using fertilizer sparingly at the beginning of the season, then add more later on. Overfed plants often grow to be unusually large, but blossom late and bear smaller crops. Applying insecticides in the early spring is often a waste of time and effort, as insects’ life cycles don’t start until later in the season.


With the right knowledge and early spring landscaping supplies, you can get a head start on making your garden the best it can be. For more information see this.