Spring is a busy and exciting time in the garden! Whether you’re tending to flowers, vegetables, or landscape plants, following these key tasks will set you up for a thriving garden all season long.

Flower & Perennial Care

  • Tend to Spring Bulbs: Cut back spent tulip and daffodil blooms, but leave the foliage to allow energy to return to the bulbs. Divide and replant overcrowded daffodils.
  • Support Growing Plants: Provide stakes or cages for fast-growing perennials like delphiniums, peonies, and lilies. Tie up clematis and other climbing vines.
  • Deadhead Spent Blooms: Remove faded flowers from annuals and perennials to encourage continued blooming.
  • Divide & Share Perennials: If plants are overcrowded, divide and replant them, or share with fellow gardeners.
  • Fertilize When Needed: Apply a slow-release fertilizer to roses, azaleas, rhododendrons, and new plantings—but do so sparingly to avoid overfeeding.

Vegetable Garden Tasks

  • Start Planting Warm-Season Crops: Direct sow squash, melon seeds, and annual flowers. Plant seedlings or direct-sow tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and sweet potatoes.
  • Protect Young Plants: Use cages or stakes for tomatoes and peppers at planting time to avoid root disturbance later. Prevent cutworms by placing a collar (like a cardboard tube or cat food can) around tender seedlings.
  • Boost Soil Health: Add crushed eggshells to tomato planting holes for extra calcium and mix lime into the surrounding soil to prevent blossom-end rot. Fertilize with kelp extract or fish emulsion.
  • Thin Seedlings: If you started seeds last month, thin them out and begin the hardening-off process before transplanting.
  • Hand-Pick Pests: Remove cabbage worms from cabbage and broccoli before they cause serious damage.

General Garden Maintenance

  • Water Wisely: Check newly planted trees, shrubs, and perennials regularly and water as needed. Monitor pots and containers daily for moisture.
  • Control Pests & Diseases: Hose off aphids, whiteflies, or spider mites on roses and perennials. Look for signs of black spot on roses and remove affected leaves—never compost them. Apply neem oil fungicide every two weeks as a preventative.
  • Weed Regularly: Stay ahead of weeds before they take over.
  • Turn Your Compost: Keep your compost pile active by turning it regularly.

Landscape & Outdoor Projects

  • Prune Early-Spring Bloomers: Trim forsythia, spirea, and other shrubs that have finished blooming.
  • Start or Refresh a Water Garden: Spring is the perfect time to set up a new water garden or clean and refresh an existing one.
  • Monitor for Mosquito Breeding Areas: Eliminate standing water in pots, gutters, or any outdoor items. Use mosquito dunks in water-collecting areas.

Enjoy Your Garden!

  • Take a Local Garden Tour: See what’s thriving in nearby home gardens and get inspired.
  • Bring the Outdoors In: Cut fresh flowers for small arrangements throughout your home.
  • Document Your Garden: Mark and photograph your bulb plantings while they are still visible to plan for next season.

Need Help Getting Started? Visit Us for Expert Advice and Supplies!

With 15+ locations across three states, Meadows Farms is nearby and ready to help. Our expert team can guide you through plant selection, pest control, and garden planning. Stop by today and get everything you need for a beautiful spring garden!