Top Tips for Prepping Your Spring Garden

No matter where you live, when the spring weather makes its appearance, your gardening activity level is sure to go up. At Elliott Homes, we know how crucial our outdoor space is to our homeowners—and it’s for that reason that we wanted to share some of our top tips to make sure your garden area and landscaping are looking their best when the upcoming summer months have you spending the majority of your time outdoors enjoying the West Coast sunshine. 

Test your soil  

Before you can begin planting your new spring flowers, you’ll first want to make sure that you clear out any weeds or debris from your garden before testing the soil. Having too much moisture in the soil can sometimes make it too compact—essentially cutting off the air circulation to the roots of the plant and killing them before they can properly begin to grow. For an easy test to see if your soil is ready to begin planting, take a handful of dirt and try to form it into a ball. If it fully sticks together without falling apart it’s still retaining too much moisture. If that’s the case, try lightly raking over the soil to break it up slightly in order for the sun to dry it out a little more before you take the next step. 

After you’ve tested the moisture level in your soil, you’ll want to make sure that it has all of the nutrients it needs to grow a healthy garden this spring. There are a number of at-home tests you can pick up in order to check your soil’s pH and nutrient levels, and this is crucial to do before you start planting so you can be sure to add in more mulch if needed or compost if you have clay-based soil in order to improve the soil’s texture.

Decide what type of vegetation or plants you’ll be growing

Depending on what type of garden you’d like to grow in your yard, you will also need to do a few additional things to get the space ready. Getting a vegetable garden ready is extremely different from planting a picturesque flower garden—and if you plan on having a variety of landscaping options, you’ll definitely want to take some notes on how you can best prepare each space. 

For a vegetable garden, if your soil isn’t draining as well as it should be, adding compost or organic matter to it can be a huge benefit—but take care to start small and add more as needed instead of adding too much to begin with. If you’re looking to refresh your flower beds this spring, you’ll first want to dig out any weeds or old perennials that you may want to move somewhere else for the season. Once again, the biggest things to keep in mind no matter what it is you’ll be planting this spring season is having proper drainage throughout your garden and ensuring that your soil nutrient levels are exactly where they need to be. 

Get ready for summer in your Elliott home

This spring, don’t be afraid to try something new in your garden and see how much more you’ll enjoy patio season when your landscaping matches your personal style. 

If you’re ready to find a home you love in one of our incredible California or Arizona communities—give us a call at (866) 984-1300 or fill out our online form today.